How the black hole in M87 launches a jet

An international team of scientists with participation of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy has used new millimetre-wavelength observations to image for the first time the link between the ring-like structure that reveals the matter falling into the central black hole and the powerful relativistic jet in the prominent radio galaxy Messier 87 (M87). These images show the origin of the jet and the accretion flow near the central supermassive black hole. The new observations were obtained with the Global Millimetre VLBI Array (GMVA), complemented by the phased Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) and the Greenland Telescope (GLT). The addition of these two observatories has greatly enhanced the imaging capabilities of the GMVA. Read more.

Image: © Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF;  Artist’s conception showing a close-up view to the accretion flow and the jet emerging from black hole region in Messier 87.

IAU CPS welcomes support from G7 Science Ministers on Dark and Quiet Skies

The G7 Science Minister have for the first time stressed the importance of the discussion on the impact of large satellite constellations on astronomy.

See the position of the G7 Science & Technology Ministers – from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States – in this official communiqué from 10-14 May 2023.

Read more here.

Image: © CTIO/NOIRLab/SOAR/NSF/AURA/M. Paredes

NEWS

• In early May, the SKAO held a joint conference with the US’ National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) to discuss synergies between the SKA telescopes and ngVLA.

The hybrid event, held in Vancouver, Canada, attracted close to 300 participants.

• The SKAO also issued a statement in response to the G7 Science and Technology Ministers’ Communiqué which references the issue of dark and quiet skies for the time. The SKAO, a co-host of the IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (IAU CPS), worked with several societies and organisations to highlight the importance of the issue to ministers ahead of the meeting.

100-m Effelsberg radio telescope: Open call for proposals

The call for proposals of the 100-m radio telescope (Effelsberg/DE) of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy is open.

Access/funding is offered through the ORP project.

Submission deadline: 01 June 2023 (15:00 UT)

Image: © N. Tacken (MPIfR)

Open call for the EAVN

The call for Proposals for the East Asian VLBI Network (EAVN) for the 2023B semester is open.

Submission deadline: 1 June 2023 (8:00 UT)

Image: © KASI

European ALMA Regional Centre

The European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) provides the interface between the ALMA project and the European science community. The ARC is staffed by scientists with expertise in radio astronomy and interferometry and it supports its users throughout the lifetime of a project, from proposal preparation to data analysis. Users that want to visit an ARC node for a face-to-face visit can apply for funding through the ORP project. 

The Westerbork Apertif Long Term Archive (ALTA) offers to the world-wide astronomical community free virtual access to data and scientific products produced from all sky surveys of the Northern sky that will be conducted with the new Apertif frontend of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), as well as tools to query, further exploit and perform data mining of these products adaptable to diverse research goals. The access/funding offered through the ORP project.

LOFAR Long Term Archive (LTA) is a long-established archive and access facility supporting the international LOFAR telescope. It is currently the largest radio astronomical archive in the world already exceeding 45 PB from LOFAR’s past 10 years of operations. The LTA provides a central and key resource for all observed LOFAR astronomical science programs where the data become public within 12 months of first creation. The access/funding is offered through the ORP project.