Season's Greetings and Happy New Year from the UK ALMA Regional Centre

With ALMA Cycle 7 observations well underway and scheduled to continue over the winter break and into the new year, we at the UK ARC Node would like to take this opportunity to wish all UK ALMA users, past, present and future a pleasant Christmas and a Happy 2020!

 

Astronomers find neutron star at centre of Supernova 1987A

Astronomers from Cardiff University led by Dr. Phil Cigan have used the ALMA telescope to find evidence of a neutron star at the centre of the remnant of Supernova 1987A.

Since the detection of the supernova over 30 years ago, astronomers have been looking for the neutron star left by the supernova in the region's thick clouds of gas and dust. Until now, the detection if this star has remained elusive. Using the ALMA telescope, the team has located a region of dust emission brighter than the surrounding material that appears to be the neutron star. More information is available from the press release.

 

Calibrated ALMA data available

The UK ARC Node would like to advertise two routes by which archival ALMA data (and proprietary data for PIs and project data delegates) can be made available as fully calibrated measurement sets.

The UK ARC Node can provide fully calibrated measurements sets, ready for imaging, for entire (or parts of) ALMA projects upon request from UK PIs/Archive users. These products will be hosted in Manchester and available for an amount of time agreed upon between the ARC Node and the user. UK ARC Node staff are also be available to support visits from users to inspect and work on their data here in Manchester. If you would like to use this service please contact us.

Alternately, since October 1, the EU ARC at ESO have made available a service to create and stage for 28 days fully calibrated ALMA data upon request on a measurement observation unit set (MOUS) by MOUS basis (with up to 10 MOUS per request). An MOUS is a single execution of a projects scheduling block. For more information on utilising this route please see this webpage.

 

Face-to-Face Visit MARCUs Funding Request

The UK ARC Node would like to advertise the continuing availability of MARCUs funding from RadioNet. This funding is available to user who wish to visit an ARC Node to work on a specific ALMA projects. Funding requests must be submitted and approved before the travel is undertaken. See the funding request page for more information.

 

e-MERLIN Cycle 10 call for proposals

Deadline: Jan 15 2020

e-MERLIN requests proposals from the international astronomical community for observations to be made during Cycle-10. Proposals are competitively peer-reviewed under standard STFC rules by the PATT e-MERLIN Time Allocation Committee. Allocation will be made on the basis of scientific merit and technical feasibility alone.

During e-MERLIN operations, ~50% of observing time has been allocated to large legacy projects, and the remaining formal time will be allocated via PATT to standard proposals solicited prior to each observing semester.

For information on e-MERLIN capabilities and how to submit a proposal please see this webpage.