First Science with ALMA’s Highest-Frequency Capabilities
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2018 6:12 pm
First Science with ALMA’s Highest-Frequency Capabilities
ALMA | NRAO | ESO | NAOJ | 2018 Aug 17
First Results of an ALMA Band 10 Spectral Line Survey of NGC 6334I: Detections of
Glycolaldehyde (HC(O)CH2OH) and a New Compact Bipolar Outflow in HDO and CS - Brett A. McGuire et al
ALMA | NRAO | ESO | NAOJ | 2018 Aug 17
Astronomers observe cosmic steam jets and molecules galore
A team of scientists using the highest-frequency capabilities of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has uncovered jets of warm water vapor streaming away from a newly forming star. The researchers also detected the “fingerprints” of an astonishing assortment of molecules near this stellar nursery.
The ALMA telescope in Chile has transformed how we see the universe, showing us otherwise invisible parts of the cosmos. This array of incredibly precise antennas studies a comparatively high-frequency sliver of radio light: waves that range from a few tenths of a millimeter to several millimeters in length. Recently, scientists pushed ALMA to its limits, harnessing the array’s highest-frequency (shortest wavelength) capabilities, which peer into a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that straddles the line between infrared light and radio waves. ...
Under ideal atmospheric conditions, which occurred on the evening of 5 April 2018, astronomers trained ALMA’s highest-frequency, submillimeter vision on a curious region of the Cat’s Paw Nebula (also known as NGC 6334I), a star-forming complex located about 4,300 light-years from Earth in the direction of the southern constellation Scorpius. ...
Previous ALMA observations of this region at lower frequencies uncovered turbulent star formation, a highly dynamic environment, and a wealth of molecules inside the nebula. ...
These first-of-their-kind ALMA observations with Band 10 produced two exciting results. ...
First Results of an ALMA Band 10 Spectral Line Survey of NGC 6334I: Detections of
Glycolaldehyde (HC(O)CH2OH) and a New Compact Bipolar Outflow in HDO and CS - Brett A. McGuire et al
- Astrophysical Journal Letters 863(2):L35 (10 Aug 2018) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aad7bb
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1808.05438 > 16 Aug 2018