Newsletter from Onsala Space Observatory |
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Onsala Space Observatory
Astronomy newsletter | April 2021 |
From the director
It is hard to believe we have all been dealing with the covid-19 pandemic for more than a year. During these many months OSO staff have managed to keep the Onsala telescopes observing. The remotely located APEX and ALMA facilities in Chile have had their operations interrupted but are now observing again. The approaching ALMA proposal deadline on 21 April will be the first in two years and is attracting enormous interest from the community. At the other end of the (radio) spectrum the first council meeting of the SKA Observatory, the world’s second international organisation for astronomy, after ESO, is a recent major project milestone. Funding for Sweden’s participation the SKA Observatory has been secured and we look forward to official news of Sweden’s membership in the coming months. John Conway | | | |
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APEX. Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi |
Call for proposalsProposals are invited for observations with the APEX telescope in the observing period July-December 2021. Deadline: Thursday 6 May 2021. In the next call (autumn 2021), proposals for both APEX and the Onsala 20 m telescope will be welcome.
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APEXAPEX is a 12 m diameter submillimetre telescope at 5100 m altitude at Chajnantor, Chile. Proposals for Swedish time on APEX must have at least one co-I with a Swedish affiliation, though up to 20 % of the observing time will be open to international proposals (i.e. those without a PI or co-I with a Swedish affiliation).
The receivers offered in this call are the heterodyne receivers SEPIA (SEPIA180, 159-211 GHz; SEPIA345, 272-376 GHz; SEPIA660, 578-738 GHz) and nFLASH (nFLASH230, 200-270 GHz; and nFLASH460, 385-500 GHz), and the bolometer array ArTeMiS (350 and 450 μm).
| | | Director's time and other telescopesThe Onsala 20 m telescope is equipped with receivers covering 18-50, 67-87 and 85-116 GHz. Large programme proposals will be welcome. Proposals for the Onsala 20 m telescope must have at least one co-I with a Chalmers affiliation. Next deadline: autumn 2021. Proposals for observations on Director's discretionary time with APEX and the Onsala 20 m telescope can be submitted at any time. The European VLBI Network (EVN) is a collaboration of the major radio astronomical institutes in Europe (including OSO), Asia and South Africa. Next deadline 1 June 2021 For more information, see the OSO Call for proposals web page. | | | | | Composite image of the SKA combining all elements in South Africa and Australia, blending photos with artist's impressions. Left: future SKA dishes blend into the existing precursor MeerKAT telescope dishes in South Africa. Right: future SKA-Low stations and the AAVS2.0 prototype station in Australia.
Credit: SKA Organisation
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SKA Project
On 4 February 2021 the new SKA Observatory international organisation
formally came into being and held its first council meeting – so becoming the
world’s second international organisation dedicated to astronomy after ESO. Six countries that have
already ratified the SKA treaty attended the council meeting as full members while a further eight countries (including Sweden) who are working toward membership
in the coming weeks and months, attended as Observers. Lars Börjesson, Swedish representative stated “For Sweden, funding has now been secured for
participation in the construction phase, and the formal process for membership
in the SKA Observatory has been initiated.” See https://www.skatelescope.org/news/skao-is-born/ John Conway, Chalmers |
Science News Do you have recent science highlights related to telescopes operated or supported by Onsala Space Observatory? Let us know and we'll share in future newsletters!
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Strange high-redshift galaxy short of [O III]In a recent paper by
Christian Binggeli et al. (2021, arxiv.org/abs/2011.13319), ALMA has revealed a puzzling lack of [O III] and [C II] emission in a galaxy at z=7.7. While
other high-redshift objects has shown a dearth of [C II], studies targeting [O III] have been very successful, at least until now. “A low metallicity might explain the shortage of [O III] and [C II] in this object”, says Christian. | | | LOFAR deep fields trace star-forming galaxiesThe giant European telescope LOFAR's deep field of view is shown for the first time in several new research articles. The new papers present the deepest images ever taken at low radio frequencies, the LoTSS deep fields, detecting signals from supernovae in tens of thousands of galaxies out to the most distant parts of the universe. A special issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics is dedicated to 14 papers describing these images and the first scientific results. Onsala Space Observatory represents Sweden in the LOFAR project, and Chalmers' Cathy Horellou is a co-author. Astron has more about LoTSS deep fields DR1. | | |
Core shenanigans in CONs
Some luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies host compact, obscured nuclei - called CONs - with high molecular column densities. Observing galaxies with
ALMA in vibrationally excited HCN in their CONQuest project, Niklas Falstad et al (arxiv.org/abs/2102.13563) found that there are CONs in 20-40% of local LIRGs (ESO320-G030, pictured, is one) and ULIRGs, respectively. These nuclei likely hide a phase of rapid nuclear growth - a star formation burst, or black hole accretion. (Image: NASA/Hubble/Alonso-Herrero et al.) | | | More papers Flora Stanley el al. (2021, arxiv.org/abs/2011.09991) used ALMA to detect both water (image) and OH in two Hot DOG galaxies. Judit Fogasy et al. (2021, arxiv.org/abs/2012.12923) discovered new companions to a bright z=2.6 radio galaxy, shining in CO only, which could be infalling clouds from the cosmic web. Franz Kirsten et al (2020, arxiv.org/abs/2007.05101, press release) found fast radio bursts from the magnetar SGR 1935+2154 with Onsala and other European telescopes. | | |
ALMA operations restarted
Thanks to the efforts by ALMA Observatory staff to recover the telescope array during a pandemic, on 17 March 2021 ALMA re-started science observations after a long shutdown. Cycle 7 science observations have resumed observations with the 12-m array in configurations C-4/C-5 with a limited number of antennas and observing bands. At the same time, ALMA Cycle 2021 Call for proposals has been issued (Deadline 15:00 UT on 21 April 2021). The Nordic ARC remains available to support you in proposal preparation, data reduction, advanced analysis and archival research. In the current situation, we can particularly assist you through remote support via email, Zoom and Slack. You can contact us at contact@nordic-alma.se or visit nordic-alma.se.
Carmen Toribio, Chalmers
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Support at Onsala Space Observatory
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Onsala Space Observatory offers a wide variety of
support to Swedish astronomers. In addition to hosting the Nordic ALMA nodes, we also offer support in several
other areas.
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Data Reduction: We support the reduction
of all types of radio/(sub-)mm interferometric
and single-dish observations. We welcome
visitors who need reduction support and offer
them the use of our National Facility
Computing Infrastructure (NaFCI) for
reduction of large data sets. Specialised Courses: We will be able to
assist with specialised lectures on for example,
interferometry, radio/(sub-)mm data analysis
and/or the use of National Facility instruments.
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Student projects: We also encourage visits
by students who want to learn how to reduce
and analyse their radio/(sub-)mm observations.
Workshop/School support: Similarly,
we can assist in planning and lecturing at
schools or workshops, when these include
topics related to National Facility activities and
instruments. This includes but is not limited to,
for example, radio/(sub-)mm interferometry
and single dish observing and analysis, ALMA,
APEX, LOFAR, SKA and EVN, plus our small SALSA telescopes for schools, students and the public. Seminars: National facility staff are also
available for scientific and technical seminars
on the aforementioned instruments. For news about SKA and LOFAR, sign up to Sweden's LOFAR/SKA mailing list. Michael Lindqvist, Chalmers
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Help us make a better newsletter Onsala Space Observatory Astronomy Newsletter informs the astronomical community of current and planned instruments, support opportunities, and scientific highlights. It's normally published twice per year. Write to me if you have feedback or ideas! Robert Cumming, editor, robert.cumming@chalmers.se
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