The NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) prototype antenna has achieved “first light,” successfully conducting its first astronomical observations independently and together with the NSF Very Large Array in New Mexico. This milestone marks the transition from construction to scientific testing for the prototype, which is validating the [...]
An international team led by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) has observed unusual flickering in the pulsar PSR B1508+55, revealing structured, filament-like gas in the interstellar medium about 430 light-years from Earth. Using the Effelsberg radio telescope in Germany and FAST in China, the researchers found that the pulsar’s signal is stretched [...]
Researchers from IRAM and IPAG have announced new results shedding light on how young planetary systems form. Using the NOEMA interferometer together with the IRAM 30-meter telescope, the team studied how accretion streamers (flows of interstellar material) feed protoplanetary disks around newly born stars. Observations of the protostar L1489 IRS reveal that these streamers can [...]
A recent press release from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy reports the first direct evidence of a close pair of supermassive black holes at the center of the galaxy Markarian 501 (Read the press release). Based on more than 20 years of radio observations, researchers identified two distinct particle jets, revealing two black holes [...]
A recent editorial in Nature Astronomy warns that astronomy is facing growing pressures from both technological developments in space and policy decisions on Earth. The article highlights satellite megaconstellations as a major “threat from above,” noting that their brightness and radio emissions are increasingly contaminating astronomical observations—even for space-based telescopes. Planned large-scale expansions could worsen [...]
Astronomers have discovered that some of the Universe’s fastest-spinning stars, millisecond pulsars, broadcast radio waves from much farther out than previously thought. Studying nearly 200 pulsars, the team found that about one-third emit radio signals from multiple regions, with some pulses perfectly lining up with gamma-ray flashes. This suggests that radio waves are produced not [...]
Using the NIKA2 camera on IRAM’s 30-meter telescope, astronomers have achieved a new sensitivity record, uncovering a massive structure of dust-rich, intensely star-forming galaxies in the early Universe - just one billion years after the Big Bang. The NIKA2 Cosmological Legacy Survey (N2CLS) revealed galaxies forming stars up to 1000 times faster than the Milky [...]
An international team led by Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy used ALMA observations to reveal how massive elliptical galaxies may form extremely rapidly in the early Universe. Studying the protocluster SPT2349‑56, just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, they observed dozens of gas-rich galaxies merging in a cosmic “firework,” with four central galaxies [...]
The international LOFAR collaboration has released the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS‑DR3), an exceptionally detailed radio map of the sky revealing 13.7 million cosmic sources. This survey provides the most complete census yet of actively growing supermassive black holes and traces energetic phenomena such as jets from black holes, star formation in galaxies, and cosmic [...]
Representatives from European radio astronomy observatories and national administrations met at the Paris Observatory to discuss the growing impact of unintended electromagnetic radiation (UEMR) from Low Earth Orbit satellite constellations on astronomical observations. Participants from Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden, together with experts from the Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies (CRAF) and the [...]