ALMA: First-Ever Detection of Gas in a Circumplanetary Disk

Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study planet formation have made the first-ever detection of gas in a circumplanetary disk. The detection also suggests the presence of a very young exoplanet. The results of the research (ALMA Makes First-Ever Detection of Gas in a Circumplanetary Dis) are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Image: © ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), A. Sierra (U. Chile). AS 209 is a young star in the Ophiuchus constellation that scientists have now determined is host to what may be one of the youngest exoplanets ever. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), A. Sierra (U. Chile)

Save the date! Conference on the 40th anniversary of the start of VLBI in Italy planned for May 22-26, 2023

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of VLBI operations in Italy, a VLBI conference with the provisional title  Bologna-VLBI: Life begins at 40! New frontiers and scientific challenges with enhanced frequency/time/space dynamic range is planned to take place in Bologna at the CNR Research Area on May 22-26, 2023.

The event aims at bringing together the astronomical community to discuss and reposition the relevance of milliarcsecond radio astronomy in the current and forthcoming framework of multiband facilities, and in the light of the many new scientific discoveries and advances over the past few years. Developments are expanding the potentials of VLBI, a number of existing arrays are including new antennas, and the frequency range available for VLBI observations spans now several orders of magnitude, from the few hundred MHz of LOFAR-VLBI, to the few hundred GHz of EHT, thus encompassing an unprecedented range of new astrophysical areas where milliarcsecond radio astronomy is bound to play a unique role.

More details will follow.

IRAM Telescopes: Call for proposals open

The call is open for observing proposals on IRAM telescopes, both the NOEMA interferometer and the 30-meter telescope, for the winter semester 2022/23.

For both observatories, the scheduling period is December 01, 2022 to May 31, 2023.

Access/funding offered through the ORP (Opticon RadioNet Pilot) project.

Submission deadline: September 15, 2022, 17:00 CEST (UT + 2 hour).

100-m Effelsberg radio telescope: Open call for proposals

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: September 29, 2022, 15:00 UT

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.