The National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) has revealed new information about mysterious radio bubbles surrounding a supermassive black hole.

AAS 241 Special Session — New Windows onto the Universe with the GBT: Asteroids, Exotic Stars, Gaseous Filaments and More
Monday, January 9th, 2023 from 2-3:30 pm (PST) – Room 605/610
Poster sessions highlighted during the Monday morning break (9 am PST)
Join us at our Special Session at the Seattle AAS. Hear from scientists including Steve Croft, Thankful Cromartie, Simon Dicker, Rachel Friesen, Anika Schmiedeke, Kristine Spekkens, and Patrick Taylor!
The GBT’s 100-meter unblocked aperture, active surface, and 0.3-116 GHz frequency coverage makes it one of the most sensitive and flexible astronomy instruments in the world. Having already made history with its myriad of discoveries, the GBT will be vital to the goals and aspirations of the next decades. New instrumentation will be vital to ensure scientists worldwide will be able to maximize the GBT’s potential and meet the aspirational goals described in Pathways to Discovery and Origins, Worlds, and Discovery, the most recent decadal plans for astrophysics. In this session we look at five areas of scientific research which would benefit from new instrumentation – the discovery and study of exotic stellar objects, detection of diffuse inter-galaxy gas, understanding star formation from sub-pc to kpc scales (including at exceptionally low gas densities), understanding the origin, dynamics, and interiors of solar system objects, and the detection of technosignatures. Here we will discuss the current state and future discoveries in these fields and discuss the role the GBT will have in these discoveries. The session will end with a panel discussion looking at the merits of new instruments for the GBT and the prioritization of these instruments.
This Special Session features 7 invited oral presentations as well as contributed iPoster presentations. The oral program and posters appear below (click on titles to see the full abstract).
Oral Presentations
Monday, January 9 from 2 – 3:30 pm (PT) – Room 605/610
Poster Presentations
Monday, January 9 from 9 – 10 am – Exhibit Hall
Oxygen in Planetary Biospheres
The Green Bank Blumberg Astrobiology workshops are supported by a grant from Unither Bioelectronique, in honor of Dr. Barry Blumberg, the late Chairman of its corporate parent’s Scientific Advisory Board.
May 5-7, 2023 at the Green Bank Observatory (GBO) in Green Bank, WV

I understood that my mandate was to establish a basic science organization that could discover and understand natural phenomena that related to early life and to life elsewhere.
Barry Blumberg, on his appointment as founding director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI).
Earth, the only planet we know of with life (and with scientists who hold workshops to discuss planets and life) is thoroughly and anomalously oxidized – in its atmosphere, mineralogy and biosphere. Clearly, photosynthetically-released oxygen, fueled by a nearby star, is sufficient to support a robust and diverse biosphere. But is it necessary? If so, is it a “hard step” towards single-and multi-celled eukaryotes (animals and plants), or their extraterrestrial analogs (“complex life”), including cognitive and technological life? Oxygen is commonly discussed as a biosignature. The rise of oxygen, as both an energetic “fuel” and the source of an ozone UV screen, is seen as key to Earth’s development of complex life. Yet Earth’s biosphere predates its contemporary atmospheric composition, and given astrobiology’s “N=1” problem, do we know enough to generalize this requirement? Should Earth’s history, which is marked by a geologically sudden rise of metabolically important atmospheric oxygen, be mirrored elsewhere? Are there astrophysical contexts and locations which favor the development of oxygenated planetary biospheres?
This 3-day workshop at the Green Bank Observatory will focus on topics related to the role of oxygen in the universe, planets and life, and how the rise of oxygen on Earth may (or may not) likely have analogs on other planets. Attendance is limited to 50 participants, by application only, and all registration and travel expenses will be covered.
Recognizing the challenges the pandemic has presented for networking over the past several years, this workshop will have a strong focus on early career researchers, and will have broad international participation. Presenters are encouraged to gear their talks to an interdisciplinary audience, eschewing the trees of internecine disciplinary debates for the forest of broader understanding.
Topics covered may include:
- Oxygenation events in planetary histories.
- The origin of oxygenic photosynthesis.
- Planetary oxygenation and the development of biological complexity.
- Alternatives to oxygen: complex life and atmospheric radiation screens on abiotic planets?
- Oxygen as a biosignature.
- False positives.
- How do biosignatures change with atmospheric redox state?.
- Exoplanet modeling and observations.
- Atmospheric evolution.
- The astrophysical and astrochemical context for biological origin and evolution.
This list is not intended to be comprehensive or definitive; we encourage those working on any related problems not listed here to apply.
Application to Participate
The following registration form is to accept requests to participate in this conference.
The deadline is February 1, 2023. Invitations to participate will be sent no later than March 1, 2023.
AstroBio2023
Green Bank Software Staff
Phone numbers: (304) 456-[office] // Emails: [contact]@nrao.edu
Office: x2210
Contact: jbrandt
Office: x2288
Contact: vcatlett
Office: x2290
Contact: tchamber
Office: x2118
Contact: mfharris
Office: x2202
Contact: pmargani
Office: x2167
Contact: kpurcell
Office: x2206
Contact: nsizemor
Summer Research Program
Are you an undergraduate student looking for a Summer research experience at one of the world’s leading radio observatories? Then apply for the GBO/NRAO Summer Student Research Assistantship and select Green Bank as a preferred site on your application!
Applications for Summer 2023 are now closed. Offers will be sent starting March 1, and the selection process will remain open until all positions are filled.