#PizzaSeminar
Title: The ngVLA, its science cases and the current role of Mexico
Speaker: Alfonso Trejo Cruz, Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica (IRyA-UNAM)
The ngVLA, led by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), will be the largest radio interferometer ever built in the northern hemisphere. With more than 200 antennas distributed across the US, Canada, and Mexico, the array will reach spatial resolutions and sensitivities without precedents. The ngVLA will open a new window on the universe through ultra-sensitive imaging of spectral lines and continuum emission with milliarcsecond resolution. We will summarise the main science goals, from the initial conditions of planetary systems to understanding the origin and evolution of black holes. For Galactic science, synergies between ongoing efforts with the current VLA and the ngVLA will be provided, in particular for AGB stars.
In the second part of the talk, we will describe the current ngVLA efforts being pursued in Mexico. The MID Array of the ngVLA will provide some of the longest baselines of the new observatory, with a large fraction of those enabled by the antennas in Northern Mexico. We will discuss the work to select the final MID sites in Mexico, including synthetic observations to characterise the array performance.
We’ll finalise with the observatory designs that Mexico is leading, such as antenna base foundations, antenna site layouts, and antenna supporting buildings. Finally, we outline the next steps in the coming 2 years, including workshops and conferences.
