Newsletter from Onsala Space Observatory |
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Onsala Space Observatory
Astronomy newsletter | April 2022 |
From the director
Onsala Space Observatory contributes to many radio telescope projects – ALMA, APEX, EVN, GMVA and LOFAR are just some of our favourite acronyms. Observing deadlines for these telescopes, and for our own 20-m telescope, occur at various times throughout the year. Next up on 13th May is the deadline for Swedish time on the APEX telescope in Chile (see below). While this call will be the last for APEX while operated as a formal three-way collaboration between OSO, ESO and the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), Swedish access to APEX will continue to the end of 2025 based on a bilateral agreement between OSO and MPIfR. We look forward via this agreement to many continued science opportunities for Swedish users of APEX. John Conway | | | |
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All eyes on black holes: this photo of APEX was taken during the Event Horizon Telescope's March 2022 campaign. (Credit Andreas Lundgren/ESO) |
Call for proposalsProposals are invited for observations with the APEX telescope in the period July-October 2022.
Deadline: Friday 13 May 2022
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APEXAPEX is a 12 m diameter submillimetre telescope at 5100 m altitude in Chile. 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; nFLASH460: 385-500 GHz), and the bolometer arrays ArTeMiS (350 and 450 μm) and CONCERTO (with a Martin-Puplett interferometer for a spectral resolution of >1.5 GHz in the 130-310 GHz range). Proposals for Directors Discretionary Time (DDT).
DDT proposals for observations with APEX can be submitted at any time. In general, a DDT proposal requires a justification of why the project could not be proposed for a regular deadline. The same rules apply for the Onsala Space Observatory 20 m telescope, and single station observations with the Swedish LOFAR station in Onsala. | | | More telescopes and observing applications
Onsala 20 m diameter telescope. Next proposal deadline will be in the autumn of 2022. The 20 m telescope is equipped with receivers covering the frequency ranges 18-50, 67-87 and 85-116 GHz. DDT
proposals can be submitted at at any time. Atacama large Millimeter/submillimetre Array (ALMA): Proposal deadline for Cycle 9 was 21 April 2022. European VLBI Network (EVN): Next proposal deadline is 1 June 2022
Low Frequency Array (LOFAR): Proposal deadlines are typically in March and September. | | | | | Now under construction: a visualisation of SKA-mid in South Africa. (Credit: SKAO)
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SKA: contracts and construction underway
Construction of SKA formally started on 1 July 2021, and contracts worth 96 million euro are now placed. In Sweden, the procurement process has also begun, with industrial contracts being sought with Swedish companies to deliver digitizers and Band 1 receivers for SKA1-mid. On the data handling side, a new phase
has begun in the establishment of the international SKA Regional Centre (SRC) network with the recent kick-off of the SRCNet prototyping project. which will last for the next 18 months. Onsala Space Observatory is working closely with the Chalmers
e-commons organization in planning the Swedish SKA Regional Centre, and we are currently hiring two staff members to work on establishing the new node. John Conway |
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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Fast radio bursts traced to a globular cluster
Using the extreme precision of the European VLBI Network, astronomers led by Franz Kirsten and Kenzie Nimmo located the closest repeating fast radio burst to a globular cluster in M81 - a big step towards understanding what makes these enigmatic flashes. (papers: Kirsten et al 2022 and Nimmo et al 2022). | | |
Comets' molecules with the Onsala 20-metreBergman et al (2022) have measured and modelled HCN and methanol from recent comets using the Onsala 20-m telescope and the 3-mm channel of its receiver system. Image: new data from the same project and team, showing methanol lines from comet C/2019 L3 (ATLAS), taken in January 2022, on an optical photo taken by Magnus Dahlgren. | | |
Water fountains reveal common envelopesUsing CO measurements from ALMA, Khouri et al (2021) discovered that a sample of 15 "water-fountain" sources are recent common-envelope events - and may account for most of the Milky Way's population of these systems. | | | CON-quest: search for obscured galaxy nucleiFalstad et al (2021) discovered just how common compact obscured nuclei are. In their systematic search of luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies, HCN measurements with ALMA revealed many examples of an exciting and still mysterious phase in galaxy evolution. | | |
21 April 2022 was the deadline to submit proposals for ALMA Cycle 9. This is the second time that dual-anonymous and distributed peer review are adopted in the main Call for Proposals. The review process will start soon and is expected to be finalised in August. Next year the array will revisit its Long Baseline configurations with baselines up to 16 km, which are only offered every two cycles. The new capabilities of ALMA in Cycle 9 are of particular importance for the Long Baseline campaign as it is the first time that high-frequency observations (Bands 8 to 10) are offered for baselines longer than 8.5 km. Do not hesitate to contact us for tailored support in using ALMA. Reach us at contact@nordic-alma.se, or visit nordic-alma.se. You can also follow the European ARC Network on Facebook and on Twitter.
Daniel Tafoya and Carmen Toribio, Chalmers, on behalf of the Nordic ARC node
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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. We host the Nordic ALMA node, and 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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Tell your colleagues about us! Onsala Space Observatory Astronomy Newsletter informs the astronomical community of current and planned instruments, support opportunities, and scientific highlights. It's published twice per year. Please encourage your colleagues to join us! Signing up is the best way of ensuring the newsletter gets to your inbox (and not to your spam folder!). Robert Cumming, editor, robert.cumming@chalmers.se
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