First Detection of VLBI Signals across 8500 km Baseline between TNRT and Effelsberg Radio Telescopes

The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT), in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), has achieved the historic first detection of astronomical radio signals using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) with the 40-m Thai National Radio Telescope (TNRT). The experiment, performed together with the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope in Germany, marks the first ever VLBI signal detection made in Thailand. Read more here.

Astronomers Discover Parallel Disks and Jets Erupting from a Pair of Young Stars

Astronomers recently used two very different and powerful telescopes, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), to discover twin disks and twin parallel jets erupting from young stars in a multiple-star system. This discovery was unexpected and unprecedented, given the stars, disks, and jets' age, size, and chemical makeup. Their location in a known, well-studied part of the Universe adds to the thrill. Read more here.

Image: © U.S. NSF/ NSF/ ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ NASA/ JPL/ JWST/ B. Saxton;  These brightly colored shapes represent astronomical data collected by ALMA and NASA's JWST telescopes. On the left, a composite image overlaps ALMA and JWST data, revealing the discs and parallel jets emitting from the pair of binary stars in WL20. The breakdown of the separate ALMA data and JWST data representing various chemical compositions is shown on the right.

ASTRON: Violette Impellizzeri new head of the Astronomy & Operations department

Dr Violette Impellizzeri will join ASTRON as head of the Astronomy & Operations department. She will start her new duties on 1 September 2024. Her research focus is on VLBI investigations of the molecular gas enveloping black holes and spectral line analyses. Read more here.

Image: © ALMA

MPIfR: Amélie Saintonge appointed new director

Earlier this year, Amélie Saintonge was appointed as scientific member of the Max Planck Society and director at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, where she will lead the new research department Star Formation and Galaxy Evolution in the institute.

The focus of this research department will be to deliver the strong observational base, in particular at (sub)mm/radio wavelengths, that is required to study the connection of galaxies with their large-scale gaseous environments and the cosmic web, the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium, and the drivers of star formation across all environments and scales, from the Milky Way, to nearby galaxies and the early Universe. Read more here.

Image: © Amélie Saintonge / MPIfR; Prof. Dr. A. Saintonge

APPEC: Newly elected Chair and General Secretary

APPEC announced that  Carlos Peña Garay, current director of the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (LSC) is the newly elected Chair of the APPEC General Assembly (from December 2024) and Julie Epas, Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie CNRS/IN2P3, the new General Secretary from APPEC (from June 2024).

Image: © APPEC

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: 26 September 2024 (15:00 UT)

Image: © N. Tacken (MPIfR)

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. 

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.