December 21, 2012 Masers in Stellar Nurseries Science Update Astronomers have come to realize that the process of star formation, once thought to consist essentially of just the simple coalescence of material by gravity, occurs in a complex series of stages

December 6, 2012 A Baby Solar System Science Update Astronomers estimate that once the Sun began to shine it took the Earth another 50-100 million years to grow to its present size, as the solar system evolved. But how did the Earth get started?

December 6, 2012 Astronomers Discover Youngest Solar System Yet News Release: www.sci-news.com "An international group of astronomers using the Submillimeter Array and the Combined Array for Millimeter-Wave Astronomy has found evidence of what might be youngest still-forming solar system yet detected."

November 22, 2012 Highly Inflated Jupiters Science Update There are currently 851 confirmed extra-solar planets. Of these, 289 were detected because their orbits (as seen from Earth) take them across the face of their host star, dimming the star's light in a transit event.

October 22, 2012 Split-Personality Elliptical Galazy Holds a Hidden Spiral News Release Most big galaxies fit into one of two camps: pinwheel-shaped spiral galaxies and blobby elliptical galaxies. Spirals like the Milky Way are hip and happening places, with plenty of gas and dust to birth new stars.

October 18, 2012 Measuring the Black Hole Environment of a Quasar Science Update Quasars are among the most powerful energy sources known -- some are as luminous as one hundred thousand Milky Way galaxies. Astronomers know that quasars have massive black holes at their cores and believe that matter falling in to the environment of the black hole powers the quasar's tremendous luminosity -- but the details remain uncertain.

October 5, 2012 How Astronomers Measured the Edge of a Black Hole News Release: www.sciencefriday.com
Video: Produced by Denise Chow "Astronomer Shep Doeleman tells us about something really spooky: a black hole's event horizon."

September 27, 2012 Peering to the Edge of a Black Hole News Release Using a continent-spanning telescope, an international team of astronomers has peered to the edge of a black hole at the center of a distant galaxy. For the first time, they have measured the black hole's "point of no return" - the closest distance that matter can approach before being irretrievably pulled into the black hole.

September 6, 2012 How Sweet It Is Science Update Astronomers have detected about 180 molecules in interstellar space, from simple ones like carbon monoxide (one atom of carbon and one of oxygen) to complex species like buckminsterfullerene (sixty atoms of carbon) or anthracene (fourteen atoms of carbon and ten of hydrogen).

July 23, 2012 Signals From the Void News Release: www.popsci.com
article by Seth Fletcher "Scientists are trying to get the first direct look at the black hole at the center of our galaxy. How close will they come to seeing the unseeable?"

April 5, 2012 Measuring Magnetic Fields Science Update Polarized light is a familiar phenomenon, as people who prefer polarized sunglasses can testify.

January 26, 2012 How Do You Spot a Black Hole? Look for Its 'Burp' News Release: Shep Doeleman is interviewed on the PBS Newshour Video no longer available. Shep Doeleman (MIT Haystack Observatory) was interviewed about the Event Horizon Telescope Project (which includes the SMA).

January 19, 2012 Stellar Embryos Science Update Stars form as gravity coalesces the gas and dust in interstellar clouds until the material produces clumps dense enough to become stars.

January 03, 2012 Solving the Mystery of Extreme Galaxies News Release: The Daily Galaxy "A team of astronomers have used the Submillimeter Array (SMA) to obtain the first unbiased galaxy survey of molecular and atomic lines using a telescope array. They covered a complete, large wavelength interval in the millimeter regime that is accessible through Earth's atmosphere."