ALMA tagged posts

ALMA spots Monstrous Baby Galaxies Cradled in Dark Matter

Example of Monstrous Galaxies. On the left is the image taken at sub-millimeter wavelengths with ASTE. It looks like there is one bright monstrous galaxy. In the center is an image taken at the same sub-millimeter wavelengths, but this time using the new radio telescope facility ALMA. With 60 times better resolution and 10 times better sensitivity, we can see that actually there are 3 monstrous galaxies close together. On the right is the same region photographed in visible light by the Subaru Telescope. We can see that not all of the monstrous galaxies show up in this picture, or at the least that some of them must be very faint. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NAOJ, H. Umehata (The University of Tokyo)

Example of Monstrous Galaxies. On the left is the image taken at sub-millimeter wavelengths with ASTE. It looks like there is one bright monstrous galaxy. In the center is an image taken at the same sub-millimeter wavelengths, but this time using the new radio telescope facility ALMA. With 60 times better resolution and 10 times better sensitivity, we can see that actually there are 3 monstrous galaxies close together. On the right is the same region photographed in visible light by the Subaru Telescope. We can see that not all of the monstrous galaxies show up in this picture, or at the least that some of them must be very faint. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NAOJ, H. Umehata (The University of Tokyo)

Astronomers discovered a nest of monstrous baby galaxies 11...

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Cool, Dim Dwarf Star is Magnetic Powerhouse

Artist impression of red dwarf star TVLM 513-46546. ALMA observations suggest that it has an amazingly powerful magnetic field, potentially associated with a flurry of solar-flare-like eruptions. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF; Dana Berry / SkyWorks

Artist impression of red dwarf star TVLM 513-46546. ALMA observations suggest that it has an amazingly powerful magnetic field, potentially associated with a flurry of solar-flare-like eruptions. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF; Dana Berry / SkyWorks

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that a dim, cool dwarf star is generating a surprisingly powerful magnetic field, one that rivals the most intense magnetic regions of our own Sun.

The star’s extraordinary magnetic field is potentially associated with a constant flurry of solar-flare-like eruptions...

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Galaxies forming Stars at Extreme Rates 9 Billion yrs ago were more Efficient than Average Galaxies today

Example of a galaxy merger Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble  Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia,  Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

Figure 1: Example of a galaxy merger Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

The majority of stars have been believed to lie on a “main sequence,” where the larger a galaxy’s mass, the higher its efficiency to form new stars. However, every now and then a galaxy will display a burst of newly-formed stars that shine brighter than the rest. A collision between 2 large galaxies is usually the cause of such starburst phases, where the cold gas residing in the giant molecular clouds becomes the fuel for sustaining such high rates of star formation.

The question astronomers have been asking is whether such starbursts in the early universe were the result of having an overa...

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Monster ‘Einstein-Ring’ Galaxy Observed at the Edge of the Universe (Weekend Feature)

The team modeled the lensing effects and corrected for them to reveal the distribution of huge stellar cradles in the monstrous galaxy shown in the image above. As a bonus, the same model indicates, for the first time, the existence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the foreground galaxy.

The team modeled the lensing effects and corrected for them to reveal the distribution of huge stellar cradles in the monstrous galaxy shown in the image above. As a bonus, the same model indicates, for the first time, the existence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the foreground galaxy.

Researchers have depicted a monstrous galaxy near the edge of the charted Universe with unprecedented detail using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) with the assistance of a ‘natural telescope’ ie gravitational lens.

The galaxy is seen at a time when the Universe was 15% of its current age, only 2.4 billion years after Big Bang. The light has taken over twice the age of the Earth to reach us (11...

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