2013 News

Une étude détaillée de la galaxie des Chiens de Chasse (M 51) a complètement bouleversé les théories prédominantes à propos des propriétés des nuages moléculaires géants. L’étude, au cours de laquelle 1500 nuages moléculaires ont été observés, montre que ces nuages moléculaires se trouvent en fait entourés d'une brume d’hydrogène moléculaire beaucoup plus dense que supposait auparavant. La pression exercée par cette brume se révèle être l’élément déterminant pour la formation stellaire au sein des nuages moléculaires.

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...

Pour la toute première fois dans l’espace, la molécule d’acétate de méthyle a été détectée. L'observation a eu lieu dans le nuage interstellaire de la Nébuleuse d’Orion grâce au télescope de 30 mètres de l’IRAM dans les domaines spectraux micro-onde et millimétrique. Orion est un nuage interstellaire assez « proche » de nous et il est considéré comme un bon « modèle » pour comprendre la formation d’étoiles à haute masse...

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.