The SKA Observatory has announced the appointment of Prof. Jessica Dempsey as its next Director-General, following a rigorous international selection process and final decision by the SKAO Council. Currently Director of ASTRON (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy), Prof. Dempsey is a distinguished radio astronomer and proven leader. She will succeed Prof. Philip Diamond in May [...]
VLBI proposals for observing at 3mm wavelength (86 GHz) using: the VLBA, GBT*, APEX, EFFELSBERG, PICO VELETA, NOEMA, ONSALA,METSAEHOVI, YEBES, and KVN telescopes should be submitted by 30 JULY 2025 (UT 21:00) GMVA proposals submitted by the 2025 July 30 deadline will be considered for scheduling in 2026 Session I (April 16 - 21), Session [...]
The ACME WP6 (Training for scientists and engineers) led by Natalie Webb and Heidi Korhonen has opened the second call to host ACME training events. This call is for one online and one in person training event. The online event should take place around May-June 2026 and the in person event around September 2026. For [...]
The SKAO Science Meeting 2025 successfully concluded in Görlitz, Germany, bringing together over 600 participants from 26 countries in person and online. The week-long event featured more than 200 talks and 150 posters, highlighting global preparations for early science with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescopes. Participants discussed the latest developments in SKA construction, data [...]
The 3rd ESFRI Stakeholder Forum Meetup was held from 10 to 11 June 2025 in Kraków, Poland, under the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The event was strategically scheduled just ahead of the 92nd ESFRI Forum Meeting and brought together a wide range of stakeholders from across Europe’s research infrastructure (RI) landscape [...]
With the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) nearing completion, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is looking ahead to its next major project. Under a new initiative called Expanding Horizons, ESO is inviting proposals from the global scientific community for a next-generation ground-based facility to be developed in the 2040s. The new programme could include a completely [...]
For the first time, astronomers have detected phosphorus-bearing molecules—key ingredients of DNA and RNA—in a cold, starless core, one of the earliest phases of star formation. Using the IRAM 30-meter and Yebes 40-meter telescopes, researchers identified phosphorus mononitride (PN), phosphorus monoxide (PO), and the phosphorus oxide ion (PO⁺) in a pristine interstellar cloud 1,000 light-years [...]
The 10th International VLBI Technology Workshop (IVTW2025) will be held October 21–25, 2025, in Gothenburg, Sweden, hosted by Chalmers University of Technology and Onsala Space Observatory. The workshop will cover a broad range of topics in VLBI technology, including station systems, frontend/backend developments, recording and correlation techniques, image processing, RFI strategies, and future space VLBI [...]
A major new study using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has revealed how gas and dust evolve differently in planet-forming disks around young stars. The AGE-PRO survey—observing 30 disks of varying ages—provides the first systematic measurements of gas masses and chemistry over time, reshaping our understanding of how planets acquire their atmospheres. The study [...]
MeerKAT, South Africa’s premier radio telescope, has successfully completed its first full Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observation with the European VLBI Network (EVN)—the world’s most sensitive VLBI system. This milestone marks a major advance in global radio astronomy, significantly boosting the resolution and sensitivity of observations. By integrating MeerKAT into EVN operations, researchers captured [...]