IRAM news

November 30, 2022
Rare Sighting of Luminous Jet Spewed by Supermassive Black Hole

What happens when a dying star flies too close to a supermassive black hole? In some extremely rare cases, the supermassive black hole launches “relativistic jets”—beams of matter traveling close to the speed of light—after destroying a star. Using NOEMA and several other observatories, astronomers just got the chance to observe one of these rare cosmic events.

November 3, 2022
Winter 2022 Ratings are now online

On 18th and 19th October 2022 the IRAM program committee met in Grenoble to discuss NOEMA and 30m proposals submitted for the winter semester 2022/233. The discussions were organized in two panels which were chaired by Amelie Saintonge (University College London, United Kingdom) and Dmitry Semenov (MPIA, Heidelberg, Germany). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

September 30, 2022
NOEMA - official inauguration of the new major facility for radio astronomy in Europe

NOEMA has now reached its full capacity. Only eight years after the first antenna was put into operation, this major astronomical project is now complete. Built and operated by IRAM and already the source of major discoveries, NOEMA is now poised to make unprecedented observations. Today, NOEMA has been inaugurated in the presence of Antoine Petit, President and CEO of the CNRS, Martin Stratmann, President of the MPG,...

5 August, 2022
IRAM Call for Proposals - Winter 2022/2023

We want to bring to your attention that a new Call for Proposals for IRAM telescopes is now available: A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given in two separate documents.

August 4, 2022
Summer 2022 [Delta call] ratings are now online

On July 21, 2022 the IRAM program committee met in a video conference to discuss 30m proposals submitted for a delta call for the months August to November of the summer semester 2022. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Amelie Saintonge (University College London, United Kingdom) and Dmitry Semenov (MPIA, Heidelberg, Germany). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

June 30, 2022
11th IRAM millimeter interferometry school

The 11th IRAM millimeter interferometry school will be held November 21-25, 2022 at the IRAM headquarters (Grenoble, France). It is intended for students, post-docs and scientists who want to acquire a good knowledge of interferometry and data reduction techniques at millimeter wavelengths, with a special emphasis on the NOEMA interferometer and its new capabilities.

June 9, 2022
Delta Call for proposals

A special delta call for 30-meter proposals is available for the period August 1st to November 30, 2022. Proposal deadline is June 27, 2022.

12 mai 2022
Les astronomes révèlent la première image du trou noir au cœur de notre galaxie

Des astronomes ont dévoilé la première image du trou noir supermassif situé au centre de notre propre galaxie, la Voie lactée. Ce résultat apporte la preuve irréfutable que l'objet est bien un trou noir et fournit des indices précieux sur le fonctionnement de ces géants, dont on pense qu'ils se trouvent au centre de la plupart des galaxies. L'image a été produite par une équipe de recherche mondiale appelée Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, à partir des observations d'un réseau mondial de radiotélescopes dont le télescope de 30 mètres. Les résultats sont publiés dans The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

May 12, 2022
Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy

Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the centre of most galaxies. The image was produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, using observations from a worldwide network of radio telescopes including the IRAM 30-meter telescope.

May 10, 2022
Summer 2022 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened via Zoom on April 25-27, 2022 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2022 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Amelie Saintonge (University College London, United Kingdom) and Dimitry Semenov (MPIA, Heidelberg, Germany). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

April 19, 2022
Astronomers Detect Supermassive Black Hole Precursor

Using NOEMA observations and archival data from several space- and ground-based observatories, an international team of astronomers has discovered a unique object in the early Universe that provides a crucial link between star-forming galaxies and the emergence of the earliest supermassive black holes. This object is the first of its kind to be discovered so early in the Universe’s history, and had been lurking unnoticed in one of the best-studied areas of the northern sky.

April 14, 2022
International IRAM conference – An Outlook on Research at Millimeter Wavelengths

The IRAM conference “Multi-line Diagnostics of the Interstellar Medium” took finally place in Nice (France), from April 4-6, 2022, after a long period of travel restrictions and virtual meetings. More than 150 scientists from across the world attended the conference. It covered three days of contributed and invited talks, as well as posters, on topics related to data analysis of multi-line observations and theoretical modeling...

February 15, 2022
IRAM Call for Proposals - Summer 2022

We want to bring to your attention that a new Call for Proposals for IRAM telescopes is now available: A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given in two separate documents.

February 11, 2022
Low-power jet siphons off fuel for star formation

An international team of scientists used the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) to study the cold gas and how it is impacted by the jets in a galaxy named B2 0258+35. They found the presence of fast outflowing cold gas in the central region of this galaxy. NOEMA's spatial resolution allowed to pinpoint...

February 2, 2022
Shadow of cosmic water cloud reveals the temperature of the young Universe

An international group of astrophysicists has developed a new method of measuring the cosmic microwave background temperature of the young Universe only 880 million years after the Big Bang. It is the first time that the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation – a relic of the energy released by the Big Bang – has been measured at such an early epoch of the Universe.

January 28, 2022
NOEMA Steps Up to Full Sensitivity

On time for the start of the new year, NOEMA has reached its full sensitivity with the commissioning of its 12th Antenna. With this milestone, NOEMA observations of the celestial millimeter-wave radio spectrum will be of unprecedented quality, and will provide researchers in France, Germany, Spain and around the world the opportunity to study the physical and chemical processes driving the evolution of the cosmos from its very early phase until today in incredible detail.

November 11, 2021
Important update for our science users

As of 1st December 2021 visiting astronomers for observations with the IRAM 30-meter telescope are invited to take up again regular observations in person. IRAM requests a valid certificate for complete vaccination for persons who travel to Granada to perform observations with the IRAM 30-meter telescope.

November 8, 2021
IRAM Conference, Multi-line Diagnostics of the Interstellar Medium - April 4-6, 2022

The conference aims to bring together scientists from a wide interdisciplinary community to address recent advances, current challenges and future directions in the field. The conference will feature three days of contributed and invited talks as well as posters on the topic of multi-line observations, analysis and modeling research.

November 7, 2021
Winter 2021/22 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened via Zoom on 18-20 October 2021 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2021/22 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Amelie Saintonge (University College London, United Kingdom) and Dmitry Semenov (MPIA, Heidelberg, Germany). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

September 17, 2021
First detection of the Thioxoethenylidene molecule (CCS) in a proto-planetary disk

Understanding the composition of proto-planetary disks, which are the cradles of planetary systems, remains a key step towards elucidating the mechanisms of planet formation. An international team of researchers used the NOEMA observatory to detect the CCS molecule in the disk surrounding the triple star GG Tau.

July 29, 2021
IRAM Call for Proposals - Winter 2021/2022

We want to bring to your attention that a new Call for Proposals for IRAM telescopes is now available: A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given in two separate documents.

June 22, 2021
"Galactic Center, a forty year journey" by Nobel Laureate Prof. R. Genzel - recordings now available

Prof. Reinhard Genzel honored IRAM by a visit and presented his last research results to the scientific community of Grenoble. The recordings of his scientific presentation "Galactic Center, a forty year journey" are now available for download.

June 11, 2021
Scientific presentation: "Galactic Center, a forty year journey" by Nobel Laureate Prof. Reinhard Genzel

IRAM is proud to announce the scientific presentation "Galactic Center, a forty year journey", held by the 2020 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Prof. Reinhard Genzel. A long-lasting member of the IRAM Executive Council, Prof. Reinhard Genzel will honor the Grenoble research institute by a visit and is ready to present his last research results to the scientific community of Grenoble.

June 8, 2021
10th IRAM 30-meter School on Millimeter Astronomy

This is the first announcement of the 10th IRAM 30-meter School on Millimeter Astronomy. Due to the special circumstances derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, the 10th edition will be held on-line, on 15-19, 22 and 23 November. On-line registration will open shortly.

May 25, 2021
Prebiotic molecule ethanolamine found in space

A multidisciplinary team of researchers involving astrophysicists, astrochemists and biochemists, has reported the detection of the prebiotic molecule ethanolamine in space, which could have been incorporated into the early Earth. This species forms the simplest head of phospholipids that make up the membranes of all present-day cells.

May 3, 2021
Summer 2021 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened via Zoom on April 19, 20 and 21 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2021 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Amelie Saintonge (University College London, United Kingdom) and Javier Alcolea (OAN, Madrid, Spain). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

March 25, 2021
Launch of Europe’s largest astronomy network

Two astronomy networks are coming together to form Europe’s largest ground-based astronomy collaborative network: the OPTICON-RadioNet PILOT (ORP). The ORP will provide scientists with access to a wide range of instruments, promote training for young astronomers, and open the way to new discoveries.

March 24, 2021
Astronomers Image Magnetic Fields at the Edge of M87’s Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, who produced the first ever image of a black hole, has revealed today a new view of the massive object at the centre of the M87 galaxy: how it looks in polarised light. This is the first time astronomers have been able to measure polarisation, a signature of magnetic fields, this close to the edge of a black hole. The observations are key to explaining how the M87 galaxy, located 55 million light-years away, is able to launch energetic jets from its core.

February 4, 2021
IRAM Call for Proposals - Summer 2021

We want to bring to your attention that a new Call for Proposals for IRAM telescopes is now available: A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given in two separate documents.

January 11, 2021
EHT collaboration honored with Royal Astronomical Society's Group Achievement Award

The EHT collaboration, including an important number of IRAM scientists, has been granted the Royal Astronomical Society's 2021 Group Achievement Award. In its citation, the RAS stated that the EHT image of the black hole shadow of M87 is "one of the finest examples of an achievement resulting from close collaboration by researchers from around the World". The image "represents an important milestone in human ingenuity and scientific endeavour, and is opening new doorways to study the physics of accretion around super-massive black holes in completely unprecedented ways.”

November 24, 2020
Funding promises a new performance era for the IRAM 30m

The IRAM 30-meter telescope is a lighthouse facility for millimeter wave astronomy since more than three decades and, for this type of telescope, unequaled in sensitivity and scientific productivity with world leading instrumentation. The Spanish science ministry has now decided to dedicate important amounts of European structural funds (FEDER) to refurbish and upgrade the facility.

November 19, 2020
Artificial intelligence, a game-changer for studying stellar nurseries

Star formation is a complex riddle because molecular hydrogen, the material that forms stars, cannot be directly detected at the low temperatures that prevail in the molecular interstellar medium. Radio-astronomers and signal and image processing experts have recently joined forces to develop new techniques that shed light into this long-standing astrophysical problem. By applying a new pluri-disciplinary approach to a state-of-the art mapping survey of 20 molecules in the famous Orion molecular cloud with the IRAM 30-meter telescope, the ORION-B team has...

November 2, 2020
Winter 2020/2021 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened via Zoom on October 19, 20 and 21 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2020/21 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Amelie Saintonge (University College London, United Kingdom) and Javier Alcolea (OAN, Madrid, Spain). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

November 13, 2020
A star, eventually!

It is a story many parents are hoping for: Imagine there’s a very young kid that seems like a real low-performer, but then it turns out that secretly it has its very powerful moments - such that the odds are pretty good it will become a real star, eventually. In fact, this is very much what an international team of astronomers found when they examined the very young protostar IRAM 04191 with the NOEMA observatory...

October 13, 2020
IRAM Executive Council member Reinhard Genzel is awarded Nobel Prize in Physics

The prestigious award honours the scientist Reinhard Genzel for the discovery of the supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy. Reinhard Genzel has been member of IRAM’s Executive Council for now more than 30 years, a major proponent and facilitator of the NOEMA project and a power user of the IRAM facilities.

September 29, 2020
The NOEMA observatory: antenna 11 joins the array

As of September 2020, antenna 11 has joined the NOEMA observatory for scientific observations following a very successful and efficient commissioning. Despite the tight antenna maintenance schedule this year and challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, observations with the entire eleven antenna array were made possible...

September 23, 2020
Wobbling shadow of the M87* black hole

In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration delivered the first image of a black hole, revealing M87* - the supermassive object in the center of the M87 galaxy. The EHT team has now used the lessons learned last year to analyze the archival data sets from 2009-2013, some of them not published before. The analysis reveals the behavior of the black hole image across multiple years, indicating...

September 1, 2020
IRAM 30-meter telescope detects a possible precursor of biological RNA

Using the IRAM 30-meter telescope, a group of astronomers led by Víctor M. Rivilla detected for the first time the molecule hydroxylamine (NH2OH) towards the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027 in the center of our Galaxy. This molecular species has been the subject of intensive research in the last years due to its importance in prebiotic chemistry.

July 31, 2020
IRAM Call for proposals - winter 2020/2021

We want to bring to your attention that a new Call for Proposals for IRAM telescopes is now available: A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given in two separate documents.

July 28,2020
A growing stellar system directly fed by the mother cloud

For the first time, astronomers have observed a conveyor belt from the outskirts of a star-forming dense cloud directly depositing material near a pair of young forming stars. Scientists at the German Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) and the French Institut de Radioastonomie Millimétrique (IRAM) found that gas motions in the conveyor belt, dubbed a 'streamer', mainly obey the gravitational pull of the innermost part of the core, near the protostar pair.

July 1, 2020
Tiny globules around young and massive stars: what do they hide?

A unique combination of the IRAM 30-meter telescope and SOFIA images of the Orion Nebula reveals how the winds and UV radiation from young massive stars eat up their natal molecular cloud. The detection of small molecular globules inside the disrupted material can be explained as a result of the unavoidable cloud destruction process. These tiny globules, however, hide unexpected surprises.

May 25, 2020
COVID-19 epidemic - UPDATE 2

Following the development of the COVID19 epidemic and the measures foreseen and scheduled by the French and Spanish authorities, IRAM adapts its activities to the specific national situation. During the last two weeks gradual restart of activities at the Grenoble headquarters and the Granada office has taken place.

April 7, 2020
Mysterious Heart of Quasar 3C 279

The IRAM 30-meter Telescope participated in first Event Horizon Telescope observations of a black-hole powered jet. One year ago the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration published the first ever image of a black hole in the nearby galaxy M 87. Now the collaboration has extracted new information from the EHT data on the distant quasar 3C 279: they observed the finest detail ever seen in a jet produced by a supermassive black hole.

March 18, 2020
COVID-19 pandemic -- UPDATE

Following the development of the COVID19 epidemic and the measures recently enforced by the French and Spanish authorities, the activities at the institute headquarters in Grenoble as well as at the Granada office have been reduced to a strict minimum.

March 6, 2020
Guidelines for IRAM users and visitors during the corona virus epidemy

The evolution of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) over recent days requires us to update and strengthen prevention measures for staff and visitors. In this context, we wish to inform you on the present update of preventive measurements for IRAM users and visitors.

February 7, 2020
IRAM Call for proposals - Summer 2020

We want to bring to your attention that a new Call for Proposals for IRAM telescopes is now available: A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given in two separate documents.

December 19, 2019
IRAM 30-meter telescope and NASA's GISMO camera map inner Milky Way with cosmic ‘Candy Cane’

The spectacular image spans 190 light-years and is one of a set of long, thin strands of ionized gas that emit radio waves. Installed at the IRAM 30-meter telescope, GISMO observed these curious structures in the shortest wavelength ever. To the scientists' surprise they also detected the most prominent radio filament in the galactic center, known as the Radio Arc, a feature delineating the backbone of a candy cane.

November 5, 2019
Winter 2019/2020 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 22 and 23 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2019/2020 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Amelie Saintonge (University College London, United Kingdom) and Javier Alcolea (OAN, Madrid, Spain). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

October 28, 2019
A revised timeline for planetary formation? Sounding the cosmic dust around young stars

An international team led by researchers from the CEA Paris-Saclay Astrophysics Department (DAp) has probed for the first time the dust envelopes surrounding stars in formation thanks to the large NOEMA interferometer. Surprisingly, the researchers discovered the presence of large grains whose size grows as one gets closer to the central star. The presence of such large grains, formed only a few 10000 years after the beginning of the gravitational collapse of the molecular cloud from which the star will form, is completely unexpected.

September 10, 2019
IRAM Conference, Multi-line Diagnostics of the Interstellar Medium - 30 March - 01 April 2020

The conference aims to bring together scientists from a wide interdisciplinary community to address recent advances, current challenges and future directions in the field. The conference will feature three days of contributed and invited talks as well as posters on the topic of multi-line observations, analysis and modeling research.

September 5, 2019
IRAM scientists share in 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

The EHT telescope collaboration has won the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Hundreds of researchers on the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team, including an important number of IRAM scientists will share the Breakthrough prize in fundamental physics for their image of the black hole at the heart of Messier 87, a galaxy 55 million light years from Earth. Congratulations to the entire team, across 60 institutions and 20 countries!

August 2, 2019
IRAM Call for Proposals - Winter 2019/2020

We want to bring to your attention that a new Call for Proposals for IRAM telescopes is now available: A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given in two separate documents.

May 27, 2019
9th IRAM 30-meter Summer School - register now!

Register now for the 9th IRAM 30-meter Summer School on Millimeter Astronomy that will take place in September, 6-13 in the ski resort of Pradollano, in the Spanish Sierra Nevada, at only 15 minutes driving distance from the IRAM 30-meter telescope.

May 20, 2019
Filaments around the Horsehead Nebula are still too young to form stars

An extensive observational survey of the Orion B molecular cloud shows why so few stars are forming in its dense gaseous filaments, despite the fact that the cloud shares similarities with other star forming regions.

May 5, 2019
Summer 2019 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Granada on April 24 and 25 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2019 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Nathalie Brouillet (Observatoire de Bordeaux) and Javier Alcolea (OAN, Madrid, Spain). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

10 avril, 2019
La toute première image d'un trou noir

La toute première image d’un trou noir a été obtenue avec l’Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), un réseau de huit radiotélescopes sur 4 continents différents, conçu à cet effet et qui inclut le télescope de 30-mètres de l'IRAM. Cette image dévoile l’ombre du trou noir supermassif situé au cœur de la galaxie M87.

April 10, 2019
First-ever picture of a black hole

The first ever image of a black hole has been obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a dedicated array of eight radio-antennas over four continents, which includes the IRAM 30-meter telescope. This image reveals the shadow of the supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy.

10. April 2019
Das erste Bild eines schwarzen Lochs

Das allererste Bild eines Schwarzen Lochs ist mit dem Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) aufgenommen worden. EHT ist ein zu diesem Zweck gegründeter Verbund aus 8 Radioteleskopen auf 4 verschiedenen Kontinenten, zu dem auch das IRAM 30-Meter-Teleskop gehört. Dieses Bild zeigt den Schatten des supermassiven Schwarzen Lochs im Zentrum der Galaxie M87.

March 21, 2019
3D rendering of the environment of a red supergiant star

An international team of astronomers led by Dr. Miguel Montargès from KU Leuven has succeeded in reconstructing the 3D geometry of the environment surrounding the red supergiant star μ Cep. The material expelled by the star during its late evolutionary stage provides the building blocks for future planetary and star forming systems. The rate at which the material is expelled is key to understand the further evolution of the star to its next stage, a supernova.

March 11, 2019
9th IRAM 30-meter Summerschool

This is the first announcement of the 9th IRAM 30-meter Summer School on Millimeter Astronomy that will take place in September, 6-13 in the ski resort of Pradollano, in the Spanish Sierra Nevada, at only 15 minutes driving distance from the IRAM 30-meter telescope.

07, February 2019
IRAM Call for Proposals - Summer 2019

We want to bring to your attention that a new Call for Proposals for IRAM telescopes is now available: A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given in two separate documents.

January 21, 2019
Lifting the veil on the black hole at the heart of our Galaxy

With a worldwide array of telescopes that includes the IRAM 30-meter telescope, astronomers have found that the emission from the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of our Galaxy comes from a smaller region than previously thought. This may indicate that a radio jet from Sagittarius A* is pointed almost toward us...

December 3, 2018
The Emerald: a jewel to understand the evolution of early massive galaxies

Using NOEMA and the IRAM 30-meter telescope, an international team of astronomers just witnessed how the sites of the most intense star formation in the early Universe communicate with their surroundings through rapid gas exchange. Their findings offer unprecedented insights into the most rapid evolutionary phase of massive galaxies, about 11 billion years ago...

29, October 2018
Winter 2018 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 16 and 17 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2018 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Nathalie Brouillet (Observatoire de Bordeaux, France) and Antonio Usero (OAN, Spain). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

September 19, 2018
Halfway mark for NOEMA

IRAM and its partner institutes celebrate the succesful completion of NOEMA phase 1. Four years after the inauguration of the first NOEMA antenna, the array counts currently 10 antennas and has provided first groud-breaking scientific results...

August 28,2018
NOEMA observatory - virtual tour now online

Discover the most powerful millimeter radiotelescope of the Northern Hemisphere. Enjoy panoramic views of NOEMA and its antennas and immerse in daily operation of the observatory at an altitude of 2550 meter above sea level.

August 7, 2018
First detection of a radioactive molecule in interstellar space

An international team of astronomers, based in the US, Poland, Germany, Australia and France has made the first clear detection of a radioactive molecule in interstellar space: the isotopologue of aluminum monofluoride, 26AlF. Recent data – obtained with NOEMA, ALMA, IRAM 30m and APEX – suggest that this radioactive molecule was ejected into space by the collision of two stars, an extremely rare cosmic event that was witnessed on Earth as a nova, in the year 1670.

04, May 2018
Summer 2018 ratings are now on line

The IRAM program committee convened in Granada on April 24 and 25 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2018 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Hendrik Linz (MPIA Heidelberg) and Richard Davies (MPE, Garching). The authors of each proposal will be informed shortly by email, including the comments issued by the committee. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

March 12, 2018
Multiple fibers in the heart of the Orion star-forming region

A unique combination of ALMA and IRAM 30m observations reveals the internal gas structure in Orion with unprecedented detail. The new data show that the gaseous material in this star cradle is highly organized forming a wispy network of filamentary structures prior the formation of stellar embryos.

March 12, 2018
10th IRAM millimeter interferometry school

The 10th IRAM millimeter interferometry school will be held October 1st - 05th 2018 at the IRAM headquarters (Grenoble, France). It is intended for students, post-docs and scientists who want to acquire a good knowledge of interferometry and data reduction techniques at millimeter wavelengths, with a special emphasis on the NOEMA interferometer and its new capabilities.

February 15, 2018
IRAM Call for Proposals - Summer 2018

The new call for proposals for the summer 2018 is available. A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given...

December 21, 2017
Concours CNAP 2018

Deux Service Nationaux d'Observation en soutien à l'IRAM sont labélisés par l'INSU: "IRAM/NOEMA" et "ALMA Regional Center".

December 8, 2017
IRAM and two Chinese partner institutions have signed a Scientific Cooperation Agreement in the framework of the NOEMA project

IRAM, the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter Range (Grenoble, France) has signed two cooperation agreements with the University of Nanjing (China) and the Purple Mountain Observatory (Chinese Academy of Sciences). The primary goal of these agreements is to strengthen cooperation in the Millimeter Astronomy, and in particular in the framework of NOEMA...

December 6, 2017
The most distant black hole in the cosmos

Astronomers have discovered the most distant quasar known, which is so far from us that its light has taken more than 13 billion years to reach us. We see this quasar as it was a mere 690 million years after the Big Bang, and its light carries valuable information about the early history of the universe...

November 30, 2017
IRAM closes in on NOEMA's full potential: PolyFiX and the Nine Antenna Array

We are very pleased to announce the successful implementation of the wideband high-performance correlator PolyFiX in concert with the nine antenna array. The commissioning of PolyFIX represents the next crucial milestone in the quest for ever higher sensitivity. The very first observations of a line survey at high-redshift in the 3mm-band are given below as a foretaste of NOEMA's full potential that is now within grasp.

25, October 2017
Winter 2017/2018 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 17 and 18 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2017/2018 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Hendrik Linz (MPIA, Heidelberg) and Ric Davies (MPE, Garching). The authors of each proposal will be informed shortly by email, including the comments issued by the committee. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

September 19, 2017
MEMS & IMAGING Summit 2017

In the framework of the LabEx project FOCUS (Focal Plane Array for Universe Sensing), IRAM will participate to the MEMS & IMAGING Summit 2017 at MINATEC in Grenoble, from September 20 to 22. FOCUS is a French research project...

August 04, 2017
IRAM Call for Proposals - Winter 2017/2018

The new call for proposals for the winter 2017/2018 is available. A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given...

June 20, 2017
NOEMA continues array upgrade

NOEMA continues its successful array upgrade with the implementation of the 9th antenna this spring. Together with the installation of the new NOEMA wide band receivers in all existing 9 antennas, the array is ready for the installation and commissioning of the new NOEMA correlator Polyfix foreseen for the end of the summer...

May 5, 2017
Summer 2017 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Granada on April 25 and 26 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2017 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Javier Goicoechea (ICMM-CSIC, Madrid) and Ric Davies (MPE, Garching). The authors of each proposal will be informed shortly by email, including the comments issued by the committee.

March 31, 2017
Imaging the black hole at the center of our Galaxy

An international team of astronomers will join in April and try for the first time in the history of astronomy, to capture an image of the center of our galaxy, where a giant black hole lies. This worldwide project is called Event Horizon Telescope (EHT); it combines telescopes across four continents from Europe to the South Pole, through Chile and Hawaii. The IRAM 30-meter telescope is one of them...

March 7, 2017
Beyond the appearances: The anatomy of the Orion Jedi revealed by radio-astronomy

Using the IRAM 30-meter radio-telescope, an international team of astronomers has obtained the most comprehensive radio-survey of the Orion B star-forming region, famous for hosting the iconic Horsehead and Flame nebulae. Through a careful dissection of the cloud into regions of different molecular composition, they shed new light on how the darkest and coldest inner parts give birth to new stars. Following mankind's tradition of associating characters with features on the sky, the radio astronomy view of Orion B seems to show the skeleton of a fighting Star Wars Jedi!

March 3, 2017
IRAM reveals phosphorus molecular compounds in the solar-type star-forming region L1157

The IRAM 30-meter radiotelescope was used to lead a systematic search for molecules containing phosphorus (P) towards L1157-B1, a shock wave front created by the propagation of a supersonic jet emanating from a solar-type protostar. Several spectral lines of phosphorus mononitride (PN) were detected and, for the first time in a solar-type star-forming region, the lines of phosphorus monoxyde (PO), a molecule of high biological interest.

February 14, 2017
IRAM Call for Proposals - Summer 2017

The new call for proposals for the summer 2017 is available. A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given...

January 30, 2017
IK Tau, a dying star at the origin of prebiotic molecules ?

An international research team has discovered rare molecules in the envelope of the oxygen rich star IK Tau, confirming that this type of evolved star has a much more complex chemistry than expected. After several observing campaigns from 2009 to 2013 with the IRAM 30-meter telescope, the data revealed the presence of, approximately, 350 spectral emission lines that belong to nearly 20 molecular species bearing elements...

January 16, 2017
RadioNet Programme Received Funding from the European Commission

RadioNet, the European Programme for radio astronomy, has been awarded a grant of 10 million Euro for the next 4 years from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. As one of RadioNet's major partner institutions, IRAM will be the leading participant and coordinator of AETHRA, a joint research programme that will exploit cutting edge technologies for next generation receivers...

January 12, 2017
NIKA captures the merging of galaxy clusters

A team of researchers from the NIKA consortium has obtained for the first time an image of the gas velocity in a merging cluster of galaxies. These observations open a new way to study the formation of the largest structures in the Universe, formed through the most energetic events since the Big Bang.

December 13, 2016
Concours CNAP 2017

Les coloriages annoncés par l'INSU lors de l'ouverture du concours CNAP 2017 incluent : ANO3 IRAM/NOEMA et ALMA Regional Center. Les descriptions des tâches proposées par l'IRAM sont données ci-dessous. Ces projets sont menés par des équipes relativement petites et il est indispensable d'être entièrement intégré dans leur travail quotidien pour mener à bien ces tâches de service. La participation active à ces activités...

October 27, 2016
Winter 2016/2017 ratings are now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 19 and 20 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2016/2017 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Javier Goicoechea (ICMM-CSIC, Madrid) and Ric Davies (MPE, Garching). The authors of each proposal will be informed shortly by email, including the comments issued by the committee. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

October 1, 2016
Discover the IRAM 30 meter telescope!

A virtual visit of the IRAM 30 meter telescope and its surroundings as well as spectacular aerial views of the observatory, located on Pico Veleta in the Spanish Sierra Nevada...

September 8, 2016
Zooming into the skin of the Orion hunter

Combining the information from the ALMA interferometer and the IRAM 30-meter telescope, an international team of astronomers obtained the most detailed image of the Orion Bar, the frontier between the atomic and molecular gas in the closest massive star forming region from the solar system.

September 2, 2016
University of Michigan and IRAM agree to collaborate on NOEMA

The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA) and IRAM, the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter Range (Grenoble, France) have finalized the signature of a collaboration agreement in the area of Millimeter Astronomy and in particular for NOEMA, the Northern Extended Millimeter Array project. The agreement, which runs for five years, will serve to strengthen and accelerate the scientific and technological progress generated by NOEMA.

August 30, 2016
The most distant cluster of galaxies in the Universe

Through a unique combination of observations made by the largest telescopes in the world, an international collaboration led by researchers from the Astrophysics Department- AIM Laboratory of CEA-IRFU has detected the most distant galaxy cluster ever discovered in the Universe . Back 11.5 billion years in the past of the Universe, the snapshot of this cluster shows 17 galaxies in a strong starburst activity, a period of intense star formation. This is the first time such a structure, captured at the time of its formation, is detected as far away, when the universe was "only" 2.5 billion years.

July 28, 2016
IRAM Call for Proposals - Winter 2016/2017

The new call for proposals for the winter 2016/2017 is available. A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given...

July 21, 2016
Expanding molecular bubble unveiling the mysterious origin of Tycho's supernova remnant

An international team of astronomers from China, UK, and Canada has discovered an expanding molecular gas bubble surrounding the remnant of Tycho’s supernova with the IRAM 30-meter telescope. This is the very first unambiguous detection of an expanding bubble driven by the progenitor star of a Type Ia supernova, and an important clue to understanding the mysterious origin of this historical supernova and its remnant.

June 21, 2016
IRAM opens a new spectral window on the Universe

The spectral range from 71 to 80 GHz is of fundamental importance for a number of questions in the extragalactic and galactic research areas but, despite of this, is one of the few spectral windows that remained inaccessible to interferometers. While the IRAM 30m telescope started in the winter semester 2015/2016, after the EMIR upgrade offering the possibility to observe in this spectral window,

June 14, 2016
First detections of the key prebiotic molecule P-O in star-forming regions

An international group of scientists from the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory (INAF-OAA, Florence, Italy), the Center of Astrobiology (CAB-CSIC, Madrid, Spain) and the Max-Plank Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE, Garching, Germany) has detected for the first time the prebiotic molecule P-O in star-forming regions. This molecule plays a key role in the double helix structure of DNA, and is therefore directly linked to the origin of life in the Universe.

April 28, 2016
Summer 2016 ratings now online

The Summer 2016 ratings are now online. The IRAM program committee convened in Granada on April 19 and 20 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2016 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Javier Goicoechea (ICMM-CSIC, Madrid) and Ric Davies (MPE, Garching). The authors of each proposal will be informed shortly by email, including the comments issued by the committee. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

April 28, 2016
And then they were 8... NOEMA stays on track

NOEMA has seen the successful deployment of the 8th antenna early April with first fringes on all baselines detected only 10 days later on the 19th of April. The NOEMA project stays on track with the ambitious timescales for construction, commissioning and integration of its future antennas.

April 20, 2016
9th IRAM Millimeter Interferometry School

The 9th IRAM millimeter interferometry school will be held October 10th-14th 2016 at the IRAM headquarters (Grenoble, France). It is intended for students, post-docs and scientists who want to acquire a good knowledge of interferometry and data reduction techniques at millimeter wavelengths, with a special emphasis on the NOEMA interferometer.

March 24, 2016
Sulfur monoxide, a key to unlocking the birth sites of future planets?

NOEMA and IRAM 30-m radiotelescope observations have provided the very first detection of sulfur monoxide (SO) in a protoplanetary disk. The IRAM 30-m radiotelescope observations were performed in the frame of ASAI, an IRAM Large Program led by R.Bachiller (OAN/Spain) and B.LeFloch (IPAG/France). Follow up NOEMA observations were obtained by an international collaboration led by A.Fuente and S.Pacheco (OAN/Spain).

March 03, 2016
IRAM Science Software User Meeting, April 6th-8th, IRAM Grenoble headquarters

The IRAM Science Software team will present the projects that were developed in the past 5 years and the projects that will be delivered in the next few years.

February 23, 2016
Concours CNAP 2016

Les coloriages annoncés par l'INSU lors de l'ouverture du concours CNAP 2016 incluent les tâches "IRAM/NOEMA" et "ALMA Regional Center". Les descriptions des tâches proposées par l'IRAM sont données ci-dessous. Les deux projets sont menés par des équipes relativement petites et il est indispensable d'être entièrement intégré dans leur travail quotidien pour mener à bien ces tâches de service.

February 16, 2016
Call for Proposals, Summer 2016

The new call for proposals for the summer 2016 is available. A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given...

February 5, 2016
NIKA 2 - A revolutionary imaging instrument for millimeter waves sees first light

NIKA 2, the second generation Neel-IRAM-KID-Array, is a dual band camera operating simultaneously at 150 and 260 GHz. The instrument is based on large arrays of superconducting Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KID) operated at temperatures of 100 mK. NIKA 2 is built by an international consortium, led by the Institute Neel (Grenoble France).

January 11, 2016
The shadow of the Flying Saucer: A very low temperature for large dust grains.

ALMA and IRAM-30m observations of carbon monoxide (CO) were used to determine a very low temperature of large dust grains in the disk around a young star in the Ophiuchus star forming region. These observations were conducted by an international team, led by a scientist at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux.

November 13, 2015
IRAM and ALMA link to create Earth-size virtual telescope

In a series of recent Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations, ALMA was succesfully linked to the IRAM 30-m antenna (located in the Sierra Nevada of southern Spain) and to NRAO's VLBA antennas in the United States.

November 10, 2015
Inauguration of the Bure cable car: a new access to science

On 2nd of October 2015, the new cable car to the NOEMA observatory was inaugurated with the presence of participating companies, the IRAM staff and numerous officials from the partner organizations as well as local authorities and representatives.

03 November, 2015
Winter 2015/16 ratings now on line

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 21 and 22 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2015/2016 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Javier Goicoechea (ICMM-CSIC, Madrid) and Ric Davies (MPE, Garching). The authors of each proposal will be informed shortly by email, including the comments issued by the committee. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

October 23, 2015
Ethyl alcohol and sugar in a comet!

An international team led by French researchers from LESIA and LERMA (both Observatoire de Paris) announces the first detection of ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH) and the simplest sugar, glycolaldehyde (CH2OHCHO) in comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy). Putting into evidence an important organic complexity in cometary material is provding key information to get a better understanding of the conditions that lead to the emergence of life on Earth

October 6, 2015
IRAM reveals a large reservoir of organic material in the starless core L1544

Placed in the Taurus star forming region, at about 450 light-years from Earth, L1544 is the prototype of prestellar cores, the cold gas condensations on the verge of collapsing to form new stars. An unbiased frequency survey of this dense core has been carried out with the IRAM 30-m radiotelescope, as a part of the Large Program ASAI (Astrochemical Surveys at IRAM; Lefloch, Bachiller et al. 2015), and has recently been used by Vastel et al. (2014, 2015) to provide the full census of oxygen bearing complex organic molecules (COMs) in its central region. As an example, Figure 1 shows the richness of the spectrum in the frequency range from 81 to 89 GHz, together with the identification of the most prominent lines.

September 1, 2015
Is the black hole in NGC 1277 really obese?

It is well known that each galaxy hosts in its nucleus a super-massive black hole, of mass equal to 0.2-1% of its bulge mass. Recently a few exceptions of over-massive black holes might have been discovered, although this is still under debate. In the lenticular galaxy NGC 1277 in the Perseus cluster, the largest black hole ever has been claimed, through stellar kinematics measurements, to be about 50% of its bulge mass! Some astronomers have contested this value...

August 18, 2015
Call for Proposals, Winter 2015/16

The new call for proposals for the winter semester 2015/2016 is available. A detailed description of the observing capabilities of the 30m telescope and the current status of the NOEMA interferometer are given...

August 6, 2015
New IRAM data policy

Read more about the new IRAM data policy. Following a decision of the IRAM partners in June 2015 the following changes are introduced:

June 16, 2015
NOEMA discovers previously unknown extreme star formation region - the ‘Eye of Medusa’

NOEMA, the most powerful millimetre radio telescope of the Northern Hemisphere, has unveiled its first astronomical image: a unique and spectacular view of a previously unknown region of extreme star formation in the ‘Medusa merger’ – a luminous collision of two galaxies at more than 100 million light years from Earth.

June 2, 2015
Jérôme Pety and Javier Goicoechea winners of the SF2A-SEA 2015 prize with a program of molecular astrophysics

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. The winners received special recognition for the study of...

May 19, 2015
Observational evidence for a new stage in the birth of a star: the first hydrostatic core

A research team has found very serious clues for the presence of a first hydrostatic core in a protostellar core located in the Perseus molecular cloud. The first hydrostatic core is a critical phase in the evolution pathway of a prestellar core towards the formation of a star. It’s a challenging premiere because...

April 21, 2015
Summer 2015 ratings now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Granada on April 14 and 15 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2015 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Charlotte Vastel (IRAP, Toulouse) and Romeel Davé (University of Western Cape, South Africa). The authors of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

March 16, 2015
A distant galaxy cluster merger

A team of scientists using the Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer (GISMO) on the IRAM 30 meter telescope selected one spectacular cluster previously found by Planck to image at 30 times higher resolution than Planck’s original detection. The cluster they observed, called PLCK G147.3-16.6, was known from early X-ray follow-up observations with the ESA’s XMM-Newton telescope to be a merger of two smaller clusters. To the surprise of the scientists...

February 13, 2015
Call for Proposals Summer 2015

Covering the period from June to November 2015, this year’s first proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on Thursday March 12, 2015. As usual, the submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

January 20, 2015
Galactic ‘hailstorm’ in the early Universe

Astronomers have been able to peer back to the young Universe to determine how quasars – powered by supermassive black holes with the mass of a billion suns – form and shape the evolution of galaxies.

December 4, 2013
Observing galactic 'blow out'

For the first time, an international team of astronomers has revealed the dramatic ‘blow out’ phase of galactic evolution. The astronomers discovered dense gas being blasted out of a compact galaxy (called SDSS J0905+57) at speeds of up to two million miles per hour. The gas is being driven to distances of tens of thousands of light years by the intense pressure exerted on it by the radiation of stars that are forming rapidly at the galaxy’s centre.

November 13, 2014
Questing for black holes in the early Universe

Observations of the infant Universe have shown that the most distant galaxies discovered so far host black holes that are extremely massive, characterized by thousand of billions solar masses. These objects, known with the name of “quasars” are generally discovered through the intense X-ray radiation they emit. The mechanism responsible for the formation of these black holes is still not known. To unveil this mystery...

November 12, 2014
IRAM 30m Summerschool 2015 - dates are now fixed!

The 8th IRAM 30m summerschool will take place on September 11-18, 2015 at Pradollano, near Granada (Spain). It combines lectures on millimeter astronomy with observations using the 30m telescope. Lectures will be given by experienced scientists and 30m observers, covering a range of topics...

November 03, 2014
Winter 2014 ratings now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 20 and 21 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2014 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Henrik Beuther (MPIA, Heidelberg) and Romeel Davé (University of Western Cape, South Africa). The principal investigators of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

October 30, 2014
Journey into the formation of a triple solar system

An international research group from LAB (CNRS / University of Bordeaux), IPAG (CNRS / Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble) and IRAM (CNRS / MPG / IGN), led the most accurate study to date, to observe the distribution of dust and gas in a multiple-star system called GG Tau-A.

October 6, 2014
Construction of the 1st NOEMA antenna - watch this video!

Watch a video about the construction of the 1st NOEMA antenna commented by NOEMA station manager Bertrand Gautier. Welcome to the Plateau de Bure, unique plateau in Europe at 2550 meters above sea level...

September 25, 2014
Spectacular aerial views of the Plateau de Bure Observatory!

The Plateau de Bure Observatory seen from the sky - a video documentation by DiVertiCimes

September 25, 2014
First step for NOEMA: MPG President, INSU Director and German Ambassadress inaugurate 1st antenna!

With the official inauguration of the first of six planned NOEMA antennas on 22 September, IRAM is taking a crucial step towards one of the largest Franco-German projects in astronomy: the expansion of the Plateau de Bure observatory in the French Alps into the most powerful and most sensitive millimetre radio telescope in the northern hemisphere. The scientists are hoping that this state of the art observatory will provide answers to questions about our origins and the formation of the universe...

September 8, 2014
Inauguration of the 1st NOEMA antenna: the program is now online

We are very pleased to announce the official inauguration of the first antenna of NOEMA, one of the biggest astronomical research projects in Europe! Read more about the programm here...

August 28, 2014
Inauguration of the 1st NOEMA antenna, September 22, 2014

We are very pleased to announce the official inauguration of the first antenna of NOEMA, one of the biggest astronomical research projects in Europe! The inauguration will take place on September 22, 2014 at the IRAM Headquarters in presence of..

August 07, 2014
Call for Proposals Winter 2014/2015

Covering the period from December 2014 to May 2015, this year’s second proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on Thursday September 18, 2014. As usual, the submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

July 22, 2014
In Memory of Peter Mezger

On July 9, 2014, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Mezger passed away at the age of 85, after a long illness. As a director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Peter Mezger was a key figure during the creation and throughout the first 15 years of IRAM. His close relations with the French radio astronomy community allowed the French and German groups to find the mutual understanding and direct exchange necessary for the setup of such a complex co-operation.

July 10, 2014
Les molécules interstellaires témoins de choix pour l’étude des rayons cosmiques et leur accélération par les supernovae

L'origine du rayonnement cosmique, découvert en 1912 par Victor Hess, reste en grande partie mystérieuse. Une méthode d’observation originale pour ce domaine de l’astrophysique, a été utilisée par une équipe de chercheurs. À l'aide du radiotélescope de 30m de l'IRAM, ils ont détecté, dans les nuages moléculaires voisins irradiés par la supernova W28, la signature laissée par des particules de relativement basse énergie (500 MeV) produites dans le choc associé à l'explosion de la supernova. En particulier...

July 03, 2014
Rafael Bachiller and Bertrand Lefloch winners of the SEA-SF2A prize 2014 with an IRAM Large Program

IRAM congratulates Rafael Bachiller (OAN, Spain) and Bertrand Lefloch (IPAG, France), the winners of the SEA-SF2A prize 2014 for outstanding achievements in a French-Spanish scientific research cooperation.

April 28, 2014
Summer 2014 Ratings now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Granada on April 9 and 10 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2014 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Henrik Beuther (MPIA, Heidelberg) and Romeel Davé (University of Western Cape, South Africa). The principal investigators of each proposal will be informed by letter which will include comments issued by the committee if there are any. As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

February 11, 2014
Call for Proposals Summer 2014

Covering the period from June 2014 to November 2014 this year’s first proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on Thursday March 13, 2014. The new submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

January 21, 2014
Channelling the flow: A key to the formation of super-Suns

One of the central issues in understanding how stars form is how the massive clouds of gas and dust in which stars form fragment to produce the the direct progenitors of individual stars. An international team of astronomers has used the 30m telescope of the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique in Spain in order to shed new light on this long-standing issue for stars more than 10 times the mass of our Sun.

December 10, 2013
Cloud atlas reshapes astronomers’ views of stellar birthplaces

A multi-year study of the Whirlpool galaxy (M51) has shaken up astronomers’ views of the properties of giant molecular clouds. The new study, which mapped 1,500 such clouds, shows that, instead, they are embedded in a kind of fog of molecular hydrogen much more dense than anyone expected, which permeates the whole of the galactic disc. Pressure exerted by this fog is crucial in determining whether or not new stars will form within the clouds. The study made extensive use of the millimeter telescopes of IRAM, the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique.

December 6, 2013
IRAM telescopes look after comet ISON during its journey around the Sun

While the scientific world held its breath in the final days before the perihelion passage of comet ISON, several astronomer teams made extensive use of IRAM telescopes to follow the event. This was a unique opportunity to investigate the composition of a remnant of the formation of the solar system that would be exposed to very high temperatures, up to 2500 degrees at perihelion...

November 5, 2013
Winter 2013/2014 Ratings now online

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 22 and 23 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2013/2014 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Christian Henkel (MPIfR, Bonn) and Valentin Bujarrabal (OAN, Alcala de Henares). As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

September 23, 2013
ALMA Cycle 2 - Proposal Preparation

In order to assist prospective users in the preparation and submission of their proposals, the IRAM ARC node is organizing a workshop on Thursday November 14th at IRAM Grenoble. This workshop will take place immediately after the two-days French "Action Spécifique ALMA" meeting organized in Grenoble on Nov. 12th and 13th. The program of the workshop will include..

August 28, 2013
The NOEMA project becomes reality : construction of the 7th antenna

In April 2013, the assembling of first new NOEMA antenna has started in the large assembly and maintenance hall on the Plateau de Bure.

July 23, 2013
Call for Proposals Winter 2013/2014

Covering the period from December 2013 to May 2014, this year’s second proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on Thursday September 12, 2013. As usual, the submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

May 22, 2013
The Mega Galaxy Merger

An international team of astronomers has spotted a massive and rare merging of two sub-millimeter galaxies (SMGs), located about 11 billion light-year away, or a time when our universe was about 3 billion years old. The duo is colliding to form a massive galaxy roughly 10 times the size of the Milky Way.

April 26, 2013
Galaxy Goes Green in Burning Stellar Fuel

Astronomers have spotted the most efficient maker of stars yet, a galaxy undergoing a rare phase of evolution.

April 24, 2013
Summer 2013 PC Ratings

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on April 10 and 11 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2013 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Henrik Beuther (MPIA Heidelberg) and Eckhard Sturm (MPE Garching). As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

April 17, 2013
Early star factory challenges galaxy evolution theory

Herschel has discovered a galaxy in the early universe making stars more than 2000 times faster than our own Milky Way. Located 28 billion light years from Earth, it is observed at a time when the Universe was less than a billion years old. Its mere existence challenges galaxy evolution theories.

April 5, 2013
IRAM new Director

As of 1st of April 2013, the new director of IRAM, Karl-Friedrich Schuster, and the new IRAM deputy director Frédéric Gueth have started their duties.

February 8, 2013
Call for Proposals, Summer 2013

Covering the period from June 2013 to November 2013, this year’s first proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on Thursday March 14, 2013 at 17:00 (UT + 1 hour). As usual, the submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

January 29, 2013
Formamide, a key molecule in the life appearance, detected in the neighborhood of a sun-like forming star

A French team of scientists from the Institute of Planetology and of Astrophysics in Grenoble (IPAG, Joseph Fourier University / CNRS) and from the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP, University of Toulouse / CNRS) has just announced the presence of formamide in the gas surrounding IRAS 16293-2422, a sun-like forming star in the Rho Ophiuchi nebula. This discovery, published on January 16th, 2013 in the Astrophysical Journal Letter (ApJ 763, L38), could represent an important step in our understanding of the origin of life on Earth.

November 29, 2012
ALMA welcomes Pierre Cox as new Director

IRAM Director Pierre Cox has been appointed as the new Director of ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array based in the Chile. He will take up his duties as ALMA Director on April 01, 2013.

November 23, 2012
The discovery of a new interstellar molecule confirms the existence of a petroleum refinery in our galaxy

An international team of scientists has just detected a new interstellar molecule in our galaxy. This molecule, called the propynylidyne ion (C3H+), is part of the hydrocarbon family, which composes one of the major energy sources on Earth, petroleum and natural gas. The discovery of this molecule at the heart of the famous Horsehead Nebula in the Constellation of Orion confirms that this nebula is an active petroleum refinery for the interstellar medium.

November 14, 2012
Winter 2012/2013 PC ratings are online

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 25 and 26 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2012/2013 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Henrik Beuther (MPIA Heidelberg) and Eckhard Sturm (MPE Garching). As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

November 8, 2012
IRAM 7th 30m Summer School 2013 - News

The 7th IRAM 30m Summer School will be held on September 13-20, 2013 in Pradollano (Spain). The Summer School will combine lectures on millimeter astronomy with hands-on experience with the IRAM 30m telescope. Participants will form small work groups to observe a diverse set of objects of the local universe, ranging from distant galaxies...

October 9, 2012
First announcement: 7th IRAM 30m Summer School

The 7th IRAM 30m Summer School will be held on September 20-27, 2013 in Pradollano (Spain). The school is aimed at attracting new astrophysicists to current and future single-dish mm-, submm-, and far-infrared telescopes. More information will follow soon!

September 28, 2012
A la recherche des molécules complexes et prébiotiques dans les systèmes planétaires en formation

Une équipe internationale vient d’observer pour la première fois la molécule de cyanoacetylène (HC3N) dans des disques protoplanétaires. C’est dans ces disques de gaz et de poussières entourant des jeunes étoiles que les planètes naissent. HC3N est non seulement la molécule la plus complexe détectée à ce jour dans un disque protoplanétaire, mais elle est surtout l’un des précurseurs des molécules organiques complexes, nécessaire à l'apparition de la vie.

September 10, 2012
8th IRAM Interferometry School - Participants list and scientific program now online!

The participants list and the scientific program are now online! The 8th IRAM millimeter interferometry school will be held October 15th-19th 2012 at the IRAM headquarters (Grenoble, France). It is intended for students, post-docs and scientists who want to acquire a good knowledge of interferometry and data reduction techniques at millimeter wavelengths.

July 31, 2012
Call for Proposals winter semester 2012/2013

Covering the period from December 2012 to May 2013, this year’s second proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on Thursday September 13, 2012. As usual, the submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

July 5, 2012
Les premiers pas d'une micro-étoile

Une équipe internationale vient de découvrir la toute première étape de la formation d'une naine brune. Plusieurs centaines de ces naines brunes sont aujourd'hui connues mais jusqu'ici jamais il n'avait été possible d'observer le début de la formation de ces micro-étoiles. Grâce à l'interféromètre du Plateau de Bure, les scientifiques ont pu localiser une condensation de gaz et de poussières dont la température est à peine 10 degrés au-dessus du zéro absolu et la masse seulement 2% de celle du Soleil...

June 14, 2012
Mystery of galaxy HDF850.1 finally resolved

Astronomers pinpoint elusive galaxy in the young universe after decade-long hunt – and find it's not alone! An international team of astronomers has managed for the first time to determine the distance of the galaxy HDF850.1, well-known among astronomers as being one of the most productive star-forming galaxies in the observable universe.

May 8, 2012
Summer 2012 PC ratings are now online!

The IRAM program committee convened in Granada on April 24 and 25 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2012 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Henrik Beuther (MPIA Heidelberg) and Eckhard Sturm (MPE Garching). As usual, the proposals were classified A (accepted), B (backup), and C (rejected).

March 29, 2012
Astronomers detect vast amounts of gas and dust around black hole in early universe

Using the IRAM Plateau de Bure array of millimetre-wave telescopes in the French Alps, a team of European astronomers from Germany, the UK and France has discovered a large reservoir of gas and dust in a galaxy that surrounds the most distant supermassive black hole known. Light from the galaxy, called J1120+0641, has taken so long to reach us that the galaxy is seen as it was only 740 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 1/18th of its current age...

March 19, 2012
Spectacular images of the IRAM Plateau de Bure Observatory

During a visit of the IRAM observatory, DiVertiCimes, an association of Grenoble photographers took spectacular images of the Plateau de Bure antennas. Have a look at our image gallery!

March 13, 2012
8th IRAM Millimeter Interferometry School 2012

Registration for the 8th IRAM Millimeter Interferometry School is now open. It will be held October 15th-19th 2012 at the IRAM headquarters (Grenoble, France) and is intended for students, post-docs and scientists who want to acquire a good knowledge of interferometry and data reduction techniques at millimeter wavelengths. The program includes lectures on...

February 13, 2012
Call for Proposals summer semester 2012

The call is now online! This year’s first proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on March 15, 2012. As usual, the submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

January 16, 2012
Cold core chemistry unravelled

A team of astronomers used the IRAM 30m telescope to study the chemistry of the dense molecular cores embedded in the Pipe nebula. They were able to classify the evolutionary stage of the dense molecular cores, which are the previous step to forming stars, as a function of the molecules that compose them. On the basis of this analysis the astronomers discovered a dense core...

January 10, 2012
NEW: The IRAM Large Program Archive

The IRAM Large Program Archive (ILPA) is the collection point for research carried out at the IRAM observatories in the framework of a Large Program. The goal of ILPA is to provide images, calibrated data cubes and uv data from the 30-m telescope and the Plateau de Bure interferometer, and make these science products available to the astronomical community...

November 10, 2011
Winter 2011/12 PC ratings are now available!

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 24 and 25 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2011/2012 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Santiago Garcia-Burillo (OAN, Madrid) and Henrik Beuther (MPIA, Heidelberg).

October 14, 2011
IRAM ARC Node: Kick-off for ALMA Early Science Observations

ALMA scientific operations have begun on September 30, 2011, when the array started to observe the high-priority projects selected after the Cycle 0 call for proposals. Since the origin of this project in Europe, IRAM has been deeply involved in the ALMA design and construction. Some of the main recent or current contributions of the institute to ALMA include...

August 8, 2011
The NOEMA Project

On June 28, 2011, an exceptional IRAM Executive Council was held at the Instituto Geogràfico Nacional in Madrid. During this celebratory meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the IRAM Partners (CNRS, MPG and IGN) and the institute itself. The signatories expressed their common wish to extend their successful cooperation in running IRAM through the end of 2024. This extension shall include an extension of the Plateau de Bure Interferometer to a facility called the Northern Extended Millimeter Array or NOEMA. The signature of this documents represents a milestone in the history of IRAM...

August 1, 2011
Kryo 2011: Deadline for registration has been extended!

The deadline for registration to the Meeting on Cryoelectronic Devices has been extended to August 15, 2011. Since 25 years the meeting provides an active discussion platform for the German cryoelectronic research community. Exceptionally, this year the meeting will be held near Grenoble, France. The Grenoble area hosts a large number of active research groups working...

July 26, 2011
Call for proposals for the winter semester 2011/12

Covering the period from December 2011 to May 2012, this year’s second proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on September 22, 2011. As usual, the submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

June 27, 2011
4th Microresonator Workshop: deadline for registration has been extended!

The Deadline for registration to the 4th Workshop on the Physics and Application of Superconducting Microresonators has been extended to July 8, 2011. Superconducting microresonators have recently generated great interest for various applications such as particle and photon detection or in circuit QED and quantum computing. Although...

May 5, 2011
Summer 2011 PC ratings available!

The IRAM program committee convened in Granada on April 18 and 19 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the summer 2011 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 2 panels which were chaired by Andrew Blain (Dept. of Astronomy, Leicester) and Sylvain Bontemps (LAB/OASU Bordeaux).

April 14, 2011
Meeting on cryoelectronic devices - October 2-4, 2011

In 2011, the yearly meeting on cryoelectronic devices will be organized by IRAM. Since 25 years the meeting provides an active discussion platform for the German cryoelectronic research community. Exceptionally, this year the meeting will be held near Grenoble, France. The Grenoble area hosts a large number of active research groups working on superconducting devices and cryotechnology. These groups are invited to participate...

April 5, 2011
ALMA Early Science - Proposal Preparation

The first call for proposals for ALMA Early Science (Cycle 0) has been issued on March 30, 2011 with a proposal deadline of June 30, 2011. In order to assist prospective users in the preparation and submission of their proposals, the IRAM ARC node is organizing a workshop on Tuesday May 24, 2011 at IRAM Grenoble.

March 21, 2011
4th Microresonator Workshop, July 28-29, 2011 in Grenoble

Superconducting microresonators have recently generated great interest for various applications such as particle and photon detection or in circuit QED and quantum computing. Although some of these applications such as kinetic inductance detectors for FIR detection are close to reach system level, many questions remain to be tackled...

March 14, 2011
IRAM Newsletter Number 76

The new issue of the IRAM Newsletter (number 76) is now online. Since the last issue, the Plateau de Bure interferometer underwent major enhancements. The refurbishment of all antennas with aluminium panels was completed. The LO reference systemwas upgraded from DRO to YIG-based oscillators...

February 16, 2011
Call for proposals for the summer semester 2011

The call is now online! This year’s first proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on March 17, 2011. As usual, the submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

January 18, 2011
6th IRAM 30m Summer School 2011 - Registration is now possible

The next IRAM 30m Summer School will be held from 23 to 30 September 2011 at Pradollano (Sierra Nevada). Applications will be accepted from young scientists with little previous experience in mm-astronomy.

December 2, 2010
Discovery of an extremely bright dust-enshrouded galaxy in the Early Universe

At the IRAM 30-meter radio telescope, near Granada in Spain, a team of astronomers stumbled upon a totally unexpected celestial source in the course of a program designed to search for debris, in the form of cold dust, left by the formation of planets around nearby stars.

November 23, 2010
6th IRAM 30m Summer School 2011

The next IRAM 30m Summer School will be held from 23 to 30 September 2011 at Pradollano (Sierra Nevada). The school is aimed at attracting new astrophysicists to current and future single-dish mm-, submm-, and far-infrared telescopes. Applications will be accepted from young scientists with little previous experience in mm-astronomy.

October 26, 2010
Winter 2010/11 PC ratings now available

The IRAM program committee convened in Grenoble on October 14 and 15 to evaluate the proposals submitted for the winter 2010/2011 scheduling period. The discussions were organized in 3 panels which were chaired by Santiago Garcia-Burillo (OAN, Madrid), Bertrand Lefloch (LAOG, Grenoble), and Asuncion Fuente (OAN, Madrid).

July 21, 2010
Call for proposals for the winter semester 2010/11

Covering the period from December 2010 to May 2011, this year’s second proposal deadline for IRAM facilities will be on September 14, 2010. As usual, the submission facility will be opened about three weeks before the deadline.

May 3, 2010
Summer 2010 PC ratings now available

Due to the exceptional circumstances caused by the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, the IRAM program committee this time convened by telephone conference between Granada, Grenoble, Paris, Leiden, Bonn, Heidelberg and Garching on April 20 and 21 to discuss the proposals submitted for the summer 2010 scheduling period.

April 20, 2010
New Plateau de Bure correlator WideX now operating

We are pleased to announce that the new correlator for the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, WideX, has successfully been installed during the last few months, and is now fully operational. This new correlator, by quadrupling the available bandwidth, provides a two-fold increase in both the continuum sensitivity and the instantaneous spectral coverage.

April 12, 2010
Observing with ALMA - Early Science - Registration now open!

From November 29th to December 1st 2010, the IRAM node of the European ALMA Regional Center will organize a practical workshop on how to plan and analyze ALMA Early Science observations. The goal of the workshop is to provide the practical information needed to plan ALMA Early Science observations and answer the first Call for Proposals.

April 8, 2010
7th IRAM Interferometry School 2010 - Registration is now open!

IRAM will organize this year its 7th Millimeter Interferometry School. These schools are organized every two years since 1998. The 7th school will take place at the IRAM headquarters (Grenoble, France) on October 4-8th, 2010.

February 15, 2010
Call for proposals for the summer semester 2010

The call for proposals for the summer semester 2010 is now online!

February 11, 2010
Young galaxies gorge on gas

An international group of astronomers has used millimeter observations with the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer to demonstrate that a few billion years after the Big Bang normal, massive star forming galaxies like the proto-Milky Way had five to ten times more cold gas than today. “We have been able, for the first time...

February 8, 2010
First localisation of water in proto-planetary disk

For the first time, scientists were able to localize water in a disk around a young, solar-type star. The disks in which astronomers suppose planets to form, basically consist of gas and dust grains. Observations with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer have now shown that these proto-planetary disks can contain amounts of water about 100 times more than the content of Earth's oceans...

December 13, 2009
First Fringes with the new Plateau de Bure correlator WideX!

We are pleased to announce first astronomical light with WideX 1st unit on December 13, 2009. A team of IRAM astronomers and engineers was able to observe stable fringes towards the quasar 3C454.3 with WideX and the narrow band correlator on all fifteen baselines of the Plateau de Bure interferometer...

December 10, 2009
IRAM scales new heights: At 5000 meters altitude, the institute's equipments capture first fringes at ALMA

On November 5th 2009, first fringes on the high-altitude site were obtained with the band 7 receivers, measuring the continuum emission of a bright quasar, 3C454.3. The result testifies for the high quality and performances of IRAM receivers, which exhibit noise figures well below the initial ALMA specifications. With its highly recognized expertise, IRAM is one of the major partners in the construction of ALMA, a giant radio observatory in the Chilean desert...

September 25, 2009
Program of the IRAM Users' Meeting now online!

Taking up the opportunity of the IRAM 30 years anniversary, the IRAM Scientific Advisory Committee organizes an IRAM users' meeting on the day after (Thursday 1st of October). IRAM staff and five members of the IRAM Scientific Advisory Committee will be present...

September 21, 2009
30 years of IRAM - Updated conference program now online!

The updated program is now online. For more information on the program and how to reach the conference center use the button below.

September 10, 2009
Cold interstellar clouds beat the best labs on Earth

Astronomers use an exceptionally cold gas cloud in space to measure the structure of molecules to a precision that cannot be attained in the laboratory. With the IRAM 30-meter telescope they observed...

August 3, 2009
Call for proposals for the winter semester 2009/10

The call for proposals for the winter semester 2009/10 is now online!

June 25, 2009
5th IRAM 30m Summer School

We will use the IRAM 30m telescope to observe planets, stars, dusty clouds, and whole galaxies, out to the most distant objects known today. On the way, we will discuss the key science questions on the one hand, and calibration and observing techniques on the other hand...

May 14, 2009
IRAM detectors, tiny but great in space

ESA, the European space agency will soon launch two new scientific satellites for astronomy in a combined mission with its heavy load carrier Ariane 5. Both of them, Planck and Herschel, are equipped with the latest high technology from the Grenoble area. In particular the Herschel Space Observatory (HSO) will embark super-conducting detectors which have been designed and manufactured at the IRAM laboratories.

February 5, 2009
Infant galaxies: small and hyperactive

When galaxies are born, do their stars form everywhere at once, or only within a small core region? Recent measurements with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer provide the first concrete evidence that star-forming regions in infant galaxies are indeed small - but also hyperactive, producing stars at astonishingly high rates.

November 25, 2008
First detection of glycolaldehyde outside the Galactic Center

With the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer an international team of scientists has detected for the first time outside the Galactic center the simplest of the monosaccharide sugars: glycolaldehyde. The importance of this organic molecule remains in the fact that it can react with propenal to form ribose, a central constituent of RNA, and is, therefore, directly linked to the origin of life...