Most detailed-ever images of galaxies revealed using LOFAR

After almost a decade of work, an international team of astronomers has published the most detailed images yet seen of galaxies beyond our own, revealing their inner workings in unprecedented detail. The images were created from data collected by the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a radio telescope built and maintained by ASTRON. LOFAR is a network of more than 70,000 small antennae spread across nine European counties, with its core in Exloo, the Netherlands. The results come from the team’s years of work, led by Dr Leah Morabito at Durham University. The team was supported in the UK by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Read the full article on the ASTRON website here.

Image: © L.K. Morabito; LOFAR Surveys KSP

50th Young European Radio Astronomers Conference (YERAC)

IRAM hosted the virtual edition of the 50th Young European Radio Astronomers Conference (YERAC) – on 24 – 27 of August this year. The 4-day event provided an opportunity for doctoral students and young postdoctoral researchers to present their research on various radio astronomical subjects. It was attended by 52 participants from different countries, as far as Namibia, India and Chile. Former deputy director of IRAM Michel Guélin gave a talk on the history of radio astronomy and the exploration of the cold universe, while a few other IRAM astronomers shared their experiences at the NOEMA observatory in the French Alps and at the 30-meter observatory on Pico Veleta near Granada in Spain. To encourage and facilitate active interaction between participants, an interactive chatting tool was employed during the conference. Hosting a virtual conference was a new experience for IRAM, which became a success thanks to the excellent cooperation of the participants.

More information on the YERAC conferences here.

Image: © IRAM

Text: IRAM

1st ESFRI Stakeholders Forum Meetup

The 1stESFRI Stakeholders Forum Meetup will take place on December 8, 2021,in Ljubljana/Slovenia as a hybrid event.

The ESFRI Stakeholders Forum is a newly established platform, developed by ESFRI with the ambition to instigate an open dialogue among the different European research infrastructure stakeholders, in order to reinforce the position of Research Infrastructures (RIs) as an essential pillar of the European Research Area (ERA). This concept was presented in the ESFRI White Paper adopted in 2020.

Find here information on the planed stakeholders forum and click here if you are interested in registering as a stakeholder.

American Astronomical Society’s Journals Will Switch to Open Access

The American Astronomical Society (AAS), a leading nonprofit professional association for astronomers, announced the switch of its prestigious journals to fully open access (OA) as of 1 January 2022. All articles in the AAS journal portfolio will be immediately open for anyone to freely read.

The transition will affect the Astronomical Journal (AJ), the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL) and the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS); the Planetary Science Journal, the AAS’s newest journal published in partnership with its Division for Planetary Sciences, is already fully open access.

Read the full information of AAS here.

Image: © https://aas.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/AAS-Journals-Cards.png
The journals of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), including the Astronomical Journal (founded in 1849) and the Astrophysical Journal family (founded in 1895), will all be “gold” open access — fully and freely available to everyone — as of 1 January 2022. Courtesy the American Astronomical Society and Institute of Physics Publishing.

The 100-m radio telescope of the MPIfR: Call for Proposals open

Access to the one of the World's largest fully steerable instrument is open to all qualified astronomers. Use of the instrument by scientists from outside the MPIfR is strongly encouraged. The institute can provide support and advice on project preparation, observation, and data analysis. Access/funding is offered through the ORP (Opticon RadioNet Pilot) project. 

Submission deadline: October 5, 2021, 15:00 UT

INAF: 2022A Call for proposals open

The Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica invites scientists to participate in the 2022A Call for proposals of observing time at the national radio telescopes: the 32-m Medicina antenna and the 32-m Noto antenna.

Please note that the 64-m Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) is unavailable during semester 2022A due to major upgrade.

Submission deadline: October 5, 2021, 12:00 UTC

Cycle 8 2021 ACA Supplemental Call for Proposals is now open

The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) is now accepting observing proposals for Cycle 8 that request to use the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) in stand-alone mode. Instructions on how to submit proposals can be found on the Cycle 8 Supplemental Call web page. Users of any nationality or affiliation are invited to submit proposals.

Find more information here.

Submission deadline: October 6, 2021

e-MERLIN Call open for Cycle 13

The e-Merlin call for proposals for Cycle 13 is now open. Details specific to Cycle 13 are available in the Cycle 13 proposal call PDF. Use the e-MERLIN proposal tool to submit your proposal.

Submission deadline: October 27, 2021, at 23:59:59 UT

Open Call for Proposals for the East Asian VLBI Network (EAVN) for the 2022A semester

The Call for Proposals for the East Asian VLBI Network (EAVN) for the 2022A semester is open.

Submission deadline: November 1, 2021, 8:00 UT

Image: Map: Location of EAVN sites, including the Korea-Japan Correlation Center at KASI (Korea) and Mizusawa VLBI observatory (NAOJ, Japan), overlaid on ‘the Blue Marble’ image (credit of the ground image: NASA’s Earth Observatory). Sejong 22-m telescope newly participates in the EAVN open use from the 2022A semester.

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 (Opticon RadioNet Pilot). 

First call for instrumental teams and observatories to propose VPHG based dispersing elements to be designed and built within ORP

The call is primarily intended to groups within the ORP project, while petitions from externals can also be considered with less priority. To apply, please fill in the form that can be accessed in this link and submit it by email to andrea.bianco@inaf.it and francisco.garzon@iac.es.

Submission deadline: October 8, 2021

The Westerbork Apertif Long Term Archive (ALTA) is a brand new facility offering 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 (Opticon RadioNet Pilot) project.