Mega-array reveals birthplace of giant stars
The Atacama ALMA observatory, an array of radio telescopes peering through the thin atmosphere high on a Chilean plateau, has used its unprecedented sensitivity to peer into the dense center of our galaxy to observe the earliest moments of giant star creation: the “embryos” of dense gas that they hope will explain how our universe’s first stellar giants were formed.
This dense gas has been impenetrable to previous telescopes, and even with only half of its antennas finished, Atacama is beginning to peer inside to see the origin of the giant stars whose explosions seeded the elements of the early universe.
This is where early star stuff becomes star stuff before it later becomes more star stuff to make our stars and stuff.
I can’t wait to see what else ALMA finds.
(via Nature News)