News

IRAM congratulates Jérôme Pety (IRAM, France) and Javier Goicoechea (ICMM-CSIC, Spain), the winners of the SEA-SF2A 2015 prize for outstanding achievements in a French-Spanish scientific research cooperation.

Composite image obtained from the emission of 12CO (blue), 13CO (green), and C18O (red) of the Orion B molecular cloud. The famous Horsehead nebula emerges at the top right part of the image. The data used to obtain this image was observed with the IRAM 30m telescope at Pico Veleta by the research team. Credit: J. Pety.

The winners received special recognition for the study of the interstellar clouds illuminated by ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars. Famous objects like the Horsehead nebula and the Orion Bar harbour many interesting physical and chemical processes driven by the interaction
between the ultraviolet radiation and the interstellar gas and dust. These studies at very high angular and spectral resolution require the world largest radioastronomy telescopes, ALMA and IRAM/NOEMA. At the head of an international team of researchers, Jérôme Pety and Javier Goicoechea used these ultimate telescopes to benchmark the photo-chemistry of the interstellar medium that plays a key role in other environments like the surface of protoplanetary disks or starburst galaxies.

Jérôme Pety	Javier R. Goicoechea

Read the SEA news (in Spanish).

Click here for the SF2A webpage (in French).