IRAM news

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 21, 2011
NOEMA selected as an "Equipement d'Excellence"

The French Minister of Research and Higher Education, Valerie Pecresse, announced yesterday the laureates of the Equipex ('Equipements d'Excellence') projects. IRAM's project 'NOEMA' (NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array) has been granted 10 million euros in the framework of the program "Investissements d'Avenir".

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

Glycolaldehyde is the simplest of the monosaccharide sugars and is directly linked to the origin of life. We report on the detection of glycolaldehyde (CH2OHCHO) towards the hot molecular core G31.41+0.31 through IRAM PdBI observations at 1.4, 2.1, and 2.