Newsletter from Onsala Space Observatory |
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Onsala Space Observatory
Astronomy newsletter | October 2021 |
From the director
The idea of a new centimetre/metre wave radio telescope of enormous size was first mooted in the 1990’s. This concept, which became the Square Kilometre Array project, has in the last decade led to impressive pathfinder/precursor radio telescopes such as LOFAR, MeerKAT, MWA and ASKAP. Given its recent start of construction the SKA itself will soon be a reality. Over the last decade there have been intense efforts on many fronts establishing Sweden as part of SKA. All these efforts have now borne fruit with the recent signature between SKAO and Chalmers representing Sweden (see below). Given that all the funding for long term Swedish SKA participation is secured, this means that astronomers in Sweden can assume full SKA access when planning their future research. John Conway | | | |
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Just arrived at APEX: new instrument CONCERTO being lifted for installation. (Credit CONCERTO team/ESO) |
Call for proposalsProposals are invited for observations with the APEX telescope and the Onsala Space Observatory 20 m telescope, in the observing period April–July 2022 (APEX) and January–December 2022 (20 m telescope). Deadline: Friday 22 October 2021
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APEXAPEX is a 12 m diameter submillimetre telescope at 5100 m altitude on Llano Chajnantor in Chile. In general, proposals for Swedish time on APEX must have at least one co-I with a Swedish affiliation; however a maximum of 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; 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). | | | More telescopes and observing applications
The Onsala 20 m diameter telescope in Sweden is equipped with receivers which provide continuous frequency coverage in the ranges 18-50, 67-87 and 85-116 GHz with 4 GHz IF bandpass, dual polarisations and full mutual sideband rejection (<−13 dB). We welcome proposals for Large programmes, i.e. spanning more than one semester and/or require a large number of hours (>~500 h). Proposals for the Onsala 20 m telescope must have at least one co-I with a Chalmers affiliation. Proposals for observations on Director’s discretionary time with APEX, the Onsala 20 m telescope, and single station observations with the Swedish LOFAR station in Onsala can be submitted at any time.
For more information, see the OSO Call for proposals web page.
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 February 2022 | | | | |
The signing ceremony on 30 September 2021 in Gothenburg was attended by John Conway, director of Onsala Space Observatory, Lars Börjesson, board member of the SKAO, Stefan Bengtsson, president of Chalmers and Eva Wirström, division head for Onsala Space Observatory. Image credit: Chalmers/R. Cumming
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Chalmers represents Sweden in SKAO as construction phase begins
Chalmers will lead Sweden’s participation in the project to build the world's largest radio telescopes. At a ceremony held at Jodrell Bank and in Gothenburg on September 30, 2021, a new agreement was signed between Chalmers and the SKA Observatory. The agreement covers the next two years, giving time for Sweden to establish a formal membership.
“With the new agreement in place, Chalmers has a new, official role as leading Swedish interests in the construction of the SKA Observatory's giant telescopes. Funding for Swedish participation in the construction project is already secured, thanks to support from the Swedish Research Council and Vinnova”, says Lars Börjesson, board member of the SKAO.
“Scientists in Sweden and all over the world want to use the SKA telescopes to ask some of our biggest questions about the universe. Membership in the SKA Observatory makes it possible for Swedish science and technology to be involved in building of these unique telescopes. It also ensures access to scientific data, and the chance to make exciting discoveries in astronomy and physics”, explains 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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Swedish team runner-up in SKA data challenge
Astronomers are looking forward to getting masses of exciting data from the telescopes of the SKA observatory. They're also training for the data deluge. The international competition SKA Data Challenge is one way training both brains and codes, and a team from Chalmers came a hair's breadth away from winning in the competition's second round, held during summer 2021. Read more in the SKAO's press release or our report on Chalmers web (also in Swedish). | | | ALCHEMI: Star-forming chemistry in nearby spiralA new complete spectral survey across ALMA bands 3-7 at arcsec resolution gives an unprecedent view of the chemistry at work in of the starburst galaxy NGC 253 (S. Martín et al 2021, arxiv.org/abs/2109.08638). The Nordic ARC node was closely involved with the design, coordination, quality control of the observations, and in reducing data in this ALMA large program. | | |
Ice mapping in OrionHow does ice form on dust grains? Giulia Perotti and her team (Perotti+ 2021) have mapped dust, gas and water ice column densities in the Orion source B35A, using both SMA and APEX. Combining gas and ice observations reveals how small-scale and large-scale phenomena are linked. (Image: Perotti et al. 2021) | | | High-definition imaging from LOFAR
New, uniquely detailed images of starbursts (image: Arp 299) and giant radio jets from LOFAR reveal the inner workings of galaxies. The images are the culmination of almost a decade of work in combining data from a network of over 70 000 antennas spread over nine European countries, among them the Onsala LOFAR station in Sweden. | | |
A new ALMA observation cycle has just startedOn October 1st the ALMA telescope successfully started regular observations for the new Cycle 8 2021, which constitutes a major achievement in this challenging period we are all passing through. The main Call for Proposals for this Cycle 8 2021 experienced significant changes, including the implementation of a Dual-Anonymous and Distributed Peer-Review, which involves the participation of the full community of ALMA users for the first time in the review process. In the past months, the engineering and operations teams completed the migration to the most extended configurations of the array. The current cycle is starting science observations with the array arranged in the long baseline configuration C-8, and in the coming weeks it will move to observe inmore compact configurations. The longest baselines will be visited again in 2023. At the Nordic ARC we're putting all our efforts to support you in using ALMA. We've adapted all our support activities to an online format, continued supporting our software tools and hosted the series of online trainings I-TRAIN. We are open to your ideas on future trainings and tools and new ways of supporting your projects.
You can contact us at contact@nordic-alma.se or visit nordic-alma.se. 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. 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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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 normally published twice per year. Thanks to everyone who signed up specially for this issue. 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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031-772 10 00 - WWW.CHALMERS.SE | |
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![Image: N. Ramírez-Olivencia et el. [radio]; NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University), edited by R. Cumming [optical]](https://cdn.ungpd.com/625e0d16-2a28-4aab-8b51-587e764046c4/images/arp299_rev_72dpi_4x3_600_w_588_h_442.jpg)
