ALMA Astronomy News

Observations of water in the disk forming around protostar V883 Ori has unlocked clues about the formation of comets and planetesimals in our own Solar System Scientists studying a nearby protostar have detected the presence of water in its circumstellar disk. The new observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) mark the first detection of water being inherited in...

Using ALMA, astronomers have discovered a large reservoir of hot gas in the still-forming galaxy cluster around the Spiderweb galaxy — the most distant detection of such hot gas yet. Galaxy clusters are some of the largest objects known in the Universe and this result, published today in Nature, further reveals just how early these structures begin to form.

Peering into the complexities of star creation, an international research team has unveiled striking insights about the formation of triple star systems. Led by Professor Jeong-Eun Lee from Seoul National University, the team turned to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to investigate the intricate gas structure surrounding the protostars in the triple system, IRAS 04239+2436....

Using ALMA, astronomers have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us. We see it as when the Universe was just 2.5 billion years old. The result provides astronomers with vital clues about how the magnetic fields of galaxies like our own Milky Way came to be.

Using ALMA, astronomers have found the possible ‘sibling’ of a planet orbiting a distant star. The team has detected a cloud of debris that might be sharing this planet’s orbit and which, they believe, could be the building blocks of a new planet or the remnants of one already formed. If confirmed, this discovery would be the strongest evidence yet that two exoplanets can share one orbit.

For the first time, astronomers have observed, in the same image, the shadow of the black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87) and the powerful jet expelled from it. The observations were done in 2018 with telescopes from the Global Millimeter VLBI Array (GMVA), the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and the Greenland Telescope (GLT). Thanks to this new image, astron...

Using the unprecedented power of the Chile-based ALMA, an international team of astronomers have made a new discovery, shedding light on the mysteries of star and planet birth. The team was led by Philipp Weber of the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH) and Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons (YEMS).

While studying a nearby pair of merging galaxies using ALMA scientists discovered two supermassive black holes growing simultaneously near the center of the newly coalescing galaxy. These super-hungry giants are the closest together that scientists have ever observed in multiple wavelengths. What’s more, the new research reveals that binary black holes and the galaxy mergers that create them may b...

Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the protoplanetary disk around a young star have discovered the most compelling chemical evidence to date of the formation of protoplanets. The discovery will provide astronomers with an alternate method for detecting and characterizing protoplanets when direct observations or imaging are not possible. The results wi...

ALMA's cutting-edge capabilities lead to groundbreaking insights into the birth of high-mass stars, the cosmic giants responsible for the elements that make life possible.

Scientists used the unique hydrogen radio recombination lines on MWC 349A to reveal hidden collimated jets.

Shockwaves resulting from the violent collision between an intruder galaxy and Stephan’s Quintet are helping astronomers to understand how turbulence influences gas in the intergalactic medium. New observations with ALMA and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed that a sonic boom several times the size of the Milky Way has kickstarted a recycling plant for warm and cold molecular hyd...

At the heart of nearly every galaxy lurks a supermassive black hole. But not all supermassive black holes are alike: there are many types. Quasars, quasi-stellar objects, are one of the brightest and most active types of supermassive black holes.

Using ALMA, astronomers have spotted signs of a 'hot spot' orbiting Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of our galaxy. The finding helps us better understand our supermassive black hole's enigmatic and dynamic environment.

While observing a newly-dormant galaxy using the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), scientists discovered that it had stopped forming stars, not because it had used up all of its gas, but because most of its star-forming fuel had been thrown out of the system as it merged with another galaxy. The result is a first for ALMA scientists. Moreove...

Using data from ALMA, a research team has discovered that the abundances of different molecular species vary significantly around the site of planets. The team found significant differences in the carbon monoxide isotopologue ratio depending on the region by applying a newly developed method to measure it. This ratio offers astronomers a new "fingerprint" to trace the origins of materials in the p...

Scientists using ALMA have for the first time recorded millimeter-wavelength light from a fiery explosion caused by the merger of a neutron star with another star. The team also confirmed this flash of light to be one of the most energetic short-duration gamma-ray bursts ever observed, leaving behind one of the most luminous afterglows on record.

While using ALMA to observe large star-forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), scientists discovered a turbulent push-and-pull dynamic in the star-forming region, 30 Doradus. Observations revealed that despite intense stellar feedback, gravity is shaping the molecular cloud, and against scientific odds, is driving the ongoing formation of young, massive stars.

Scientists using ALMA have observed a significant amount of cold, neutral gas in the outer regions of the young galaxy A1689-zD1, as well as outflows of hot gas coming from the galaxy's center. These results may shed light on a critical stage of galactic evolution for early galaxies, where young galaxies begin the transformation to be increasingly like their later, more structured cousins.

Using ALMA, astronomers have imaged the debris disk of the nearby star HD 53143 at millimeter wavelengths for the first time, and it looks nothing like they expected. Based on early coronagraphic data, scientists expected ALMA to confirm the debris disk as a face-on ring peppered with clumps of dust. Instead, the observations took a surprise turn, revealing the most complicated and eccentric debri...

As a result of achieving high imaging dynamic range, a team of astronomers in Japan has discovered for the first time a faint radio emission covering a giant galaxy with an energetic black hole at its center. The radio emission is released from gas created directly by the central black hole. The team expects to understand how a black hole interacts with its host galaxy by applying the same techniq...

At simultaneous press conferences around the world, including at the ALMA observatory offices in Santiago, Chile, astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.

Scientists discover that post-starburst galaxies condense their gas rather than expelling it, begging the question: what’s keeping them from forming stars?

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, researchers at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands have for the first time detected dimethyl ether in a planet-forming disc. With nine atoms, this is the largest molecule identified in such a disc to date. It is also a precursor of larger organic molecules that can lead to the emergence of life.

An international astronomer team has discovered the most distant galaxy candidate to date, named HD1, which is about 13.5 billion light-years away. This discovery implies that bright systems like HD1 existed as early as 300 million years after the Big Bang. This galaxy candidate is one of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) targets launched late last year. If observations with the JWST confirm i...