News – Canada Astronomy Long Range Plan 2020-2030, a report on priorities and recommendations for Canadian astronomy over the next decade, has recommended that Canada support the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) proposed to the next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA), says the new facility will allow for transformational science across many areas of epistemology.
The ngVLA will be a series of 263 dish antennas arriving across North America. Both sensitivity to fragile objects and its resolving power – the ability to see details – will be 10 times greater than the standard VLA. Building on the scientific and technical legacies of the VLA and the Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array (ALMA), the ngVLA is designed to take the next big leap forward in our understanding of planets, galaxies, black holes, and the dynamic skies. NgVLA capabilities complement the capabilities of ALMA and the Square Kilometer Array.
“This welcome and important proposal promises to continue a long-standing tradition of productive collaboration with our Canadian colleagues,” said NRAO Director Tony Beasley. “Canada’s contribution to the VLA over the years has been invaluable, and we look forward to an exciting partnership in the decades to come,” said Beasley.
The panel recommended that Canada contribute $ 130 million towards the construction of ngVLA and $ 6 million annually for the operation of the facility. This represents about 6 percent of the project’s total budget, and would give Canadian astronauts the same percentage of observation time.
“Like many of my colleagues across the Canadian university community, I am thrilled to see the recommendation to join the ngVLA. This opportunity builds on our longstanding partnership with NRAO in radio astronomy. My students and I rely on the diverse capabilities of the Canadian-built correlator system for the conventional VLA to study the evolution of galaxies. Our scientists and engineers have many new ideas to contribute to the design, construction and use of the ngVLA, and I look forward to making science enabled by their innovation, ”said Erik Rosolowsky of the University. Alberta.
The ngVLA project is currently under investigation by the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey (Astro2020) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. That report is expected in Spring 2021. Following that report, the project must be approved by the National Science Foundation’s National Science Foundation and funded by Congress. Construction could begin by 2025 with early scientific ideas starting in 2028 and full scientific work by 2035.
“Canadians have been valuable partners in developing the scientific and technical methods of the ngVLA project from the beginning,” said Eric Murphy, NRAO Project Scientist for the ngVLA. “They serve on our advisory councils, and we hope that their experience and leadership will help ensure that the ngVLA becomes one of the key tools in the 21st century for our knowledge of the world- what to promote, ”he said.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a resource of the National Science Foundation, operated under a collaborative agreement with Associated Universities, Inc.
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