ALMA Observatory

29/09/2026

🧊ALMA antennas on ice! 🧊
The Chajnantor Plateau is a very high and dry place, ideal because water v***r in the atmosphere doesn't block observations at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. But it's an extreme location, and the antennas and our team are prepared for anything.🦾

📷: Yerko Villalón, ALMA Photo-ambassador.

28/09/2026

📡"ALMA watches a massive binary star system form in real time" by Tech Explorist

The majority of massive stars are not solitary. Indeed, at least nine out of ten are born with companions and thus form binary or more complicated systems. Such partnerships matter because they influence galaxy development through supernova explosions and the production of heavy elements. Yet astronomers usually study such systems only long after they’ve formed, so the moment of assembly has remained elusive.

Astronomers have taken a remarkable step forward in watching a massive binary star system assemble in real time. Using ALMA, they tracked the motions of two young, massive stars for nearly eight years, building one of the most detailed 3D views ever captured of such a system. What they found was striking: the stars follow a highly elongated orbit and are each surrounded by gas disks that are strongly tilted, both relative to each other and to the orbital plane.

The majority of massive stars are not solitary. Indeed, at least nine out of ten are born with companions and thus form binary or more complicated

27/09/2026

📡"ALMA is Watching a Massive Binary Star System Form" by Universe Today

Most stars in the Milky Way are binary stars. Binary relationships shape the futures of the stars in them, and astronomers are eager to learn more about the processes that generate binaries and shape outcomes. To do that, they need to find and monitor young binary protostars.

The fraction of binary stars scales with stellar mass. About 25-30% of M-dwarfs, 45-50% of Sun-like stars, and 50-70% of A-type stars are binaries. But for the most massive type of star, O/B stars, the number is at least 75%, and could be greater than 90%.

There are three pathways stars can follow to become binaries: disk fragmentation, capture, and core fragmentation. Astronomers want to understand them in greater detail and determine if theory matches deeper observations. Since massive stars play a critical role in the Universe by synthesizing heavy elements and spreading them out into space, researchers have reason to learn how they form and evolve in binaries.

In new research published in Nature Astronomy, astronomers used ALMA to observe a massive binary system while its still forming. The research is titled "An eccentric massive protobinary assembled via a core-merger parabolic encounter." The first author is Yao Wang, from the Department of Astronomy in the School of Physics and Astronomy, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/alma-is-watching-a-massive-binary-star-system-form

25/09/2026

Average Radio telescope in Chile📡📡📡🇨🇱

25/09/2026

🌀ENDTRANZ, a long-sought transition zone where infalling gas gradually merges with a rotating disk.

🪐A key piece in understanding how planet-forming disks are sculpted.

📷: Conceptual visualization, Indrani Das/ASIAA. The transition zone at the envelope–disk boundary, which is shown as a red colored, belt-like annulus where the gas motion gradually transitions from the infalling envelope to the Keplerian rotation within the protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star. This is an AI-generated illustration based on a two-dimensional spatial map of the specific angular momentum in the equatorial plane, as obtained from the numerical simulations. The specific angular momentum map offers an intuitive lens to ‘see’ ENDTRANZ, making its dynamics more apparent than in the rotational velocity map.

For more info follow the link: https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-releases/alma-reveals-how-planet-forming-disks-take-shape/

25/09/2026

📡Using ALMA, a team of astronomers have captured one of the most detailed three-dimensional views yet of a massive binary star system while it is still being born.

✨By tracking the motions of two young, massive stars over nearly eight years, the team found that the pair follows a highly stretched-out orbit and is surrounded by strongly tilted gas disks, both relative to each other and to the stars' orbit.

🌟🌟The findings suggest the two stars didn't form together from a single spinning disk of material, as is often assumed, but instead formed independently and later came together in a close gravitational encounter, revealing a new way close massive binary star systems may form.

📷: An artist’s impression of the formation of a close massive binary system, showing misaligned disks around two young stars. Credit: Y. Zhang

➡️ https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-releases/alma-watches-a-massive-binary-assemble-in-real-time/

23/09/2026

✨Cosmic sunsets at the ALMA Operations Support Facility (OSF) at an altitude of 2,900m 📡, Atacama Desert, Chile.

📷: Carlos Rojas, ALMA Photo- ambassador.

23/09/2026

Spring has arrived here! 🌸
And what season is it in your country?
We want to know! 🫰
📷: Pablo Bello, ALMA Photo-ambassador

21/09/2026

🌸/🍂Are you ready for the September 2026 equinox?

Check the dates and times for your country.

🌸Southern Hemisphere

🇨🇱 Chile (Santiago / UTC-3):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 09:05 pm

🇦🇷 Argentina (Buenos Aires / UTC-3):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 09:05 pm

🇺🇾 Uruguay (Montevideo / UTC-3):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 09:05 pm

🇵🇾 Paraguay (Asunción / UTC-4):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 08:05 pm

🇧🇴 Bolivia (La Paz / UTC-4):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 08:05 pm

🇧🇷 Brasil (Brasilia / UTC-3):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 09:05 pm

🇵🇪 Perú (Lima / UTC-5):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 07:05 pm

🇪🇨 Ecuador (Quito / UTC-5):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 07:05 pm

🍂Northern Hemisphere

🇲🇽 México (CDMX / UTC-6):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 06:05 pm

🇺🇸 🇨🇦 EE. UU. y Canada (West Coast) (EDT/PDT / UTC-7):
September 22, 05:05 pm

🇺🇸 🇨🇦 EE. UU. y Canada (East Coast) (EDT / UTC-4):
September 22, 08:05 pm

🇬🇧 United Kingdom (London, BST / UTC+1):
September 23, 01:05 am

🇵🇹 Portugal (Lisboa, WEST / UTC+1):
Miércoles 23 de septiembre, 01:05 am

🇪🇸 España (Madrid, CEST / UTC+2):
Miércoles 23 de septiembre, 02:05 am

🇻🇪 Venezuela (Caracas / UTC-4)
Martes 22 de septiembre de 2026 a las 08:05 pm

🇨🇴 Colombia (Bogotá / UTC-5):
Martes 22 de septiembre, 07:05 pm

🇫🇷 France (Paris, CEST / UTC+2):
September 23 , 02:05 am

🇩🇪 Alemania (Berlín, CEST / UTC+2):
September 23, 02:05 am

🇮🇹 Italy (Rome, CEST / UTC+2):
September 23, 02:05 am

🇯🇵 Japan (Tokio, JST / UTC+9):
September 23, 09:05 am

20/09/2026

📡We are on BBC Sky at Night Magazine
"Scientists just witnessed the birth of a double-star system in real time. It's like watching a Star Wars world forming right in front of us"

A rare glimpse into the birth of a two-star system
Astronomers say most massive stars are born with stellar companions, with at least 90% thought to exist in binary or multiple-star systems.

Massive binary star systems shape their surroundings through supernova explosions and the production of heavy elements.

But most of the time, astronomers only detect binary star systems after they've finished forming.

It's rare that astronomers get the chance to catch the moment of assembly.

An international team led by Yichen Zhang of Shanghai Jiao Tong University turned their attention to IRAS 07299−1651, a system containing two massive 'protostars', which are young stars still growing by accumulating surrounding gas and dust.

The team first looked at the system with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in 2019 and found their observations seemed to tally with existing theories – two stars born together within a single large disk.

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/iras-07299-1651-study-alma

Astronomers have captured one of the most detailed 3D views ever recorded of a massive binary star system in the middle of its dynamic birth.