ALMA Cycle 2 call for proposals attracts record number of applications
17 December, 2013 / Read time: 2 minutes
The ALMA Observatory's Early Science Cycle 2 has attracted 1,382 proposals for observation time submitted by the international scientific community during the application period (October 24-December 5, 2013). More than 3,000 astronomers participated in the process.
"This is a resounding success, which demonstrates the strong support for and interest in ALMA by the scientific community," said Pierre Cox, Director of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Lars-Ake Nyman, Head of Science Operations at ALMA, highlighted that "the support for this new instrument is increasing with time, as we received 1,131 proposals for Cycle 1."He also emphasized the collaborative nature of the process, as there are proposals by groups of researchers from five different regions.
Cycle 2 observations are scheduled to begin in June 2014 for a period of 17 months.
As shown in the figure, most of the proposals received involve research that falls within the Interstellar Medium (ISM), Star Formation, and Astrochemistry category (26.3%) and Galaxies and Galactic Nuclei (25.8%). Of the proposals, 21.3% are in the Cosmology and the High Redshift Universe category, while 17.4% aim to conduct research on Circumstellar Disks, Exoplanets and the Solar System. Finally, the Stellar Evolution and the Sun category represents 9.1% of the proposals received.
In total, the applicants have requested 7,314 hours of observation. The ALMA Observatory will now begin the evaluation process, in which 11 Review Panels comprising a total of 80 experts will analyze the proposals in relation to their scientific categories. The results of these evaluations are expected to be announced in April 2014.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.
Contact:
Valeria Foncea
Education and Public Outreach Officer
Joint ALMA Observatory
Santiago, Chile
Tel: +56 2 2467 6258
E-mail: [email protected]
