[Previous] | [Session 30] | [Next]
J.S. Ulvestad (NRAO), EVLA Science Team
The formation of stars and galaxies, and the evolution of the gas content of the universe, are among the most important topics in modern astronomy. This can be seen by the variety of new ground- and space-based telescopes that will come on line in the next 10 years to study such problems, including the Next Generation Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. Centimeter-wavelength radio data are useful both in measuring the evolution of neutral hydrogen and (especially redshifted) molecular gas, and in providing extinction-free measurements of three of the most important emission processes in both young stars and high-redshift galaxies (synchrotron, thermal free-free, and dust emission). To date, such studies have been limited by inadequate sensitivity and spectral flexibility. However, the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) will surmount these problems by providing complete spectral coverage between 1 and 50 GHz, as well as sensitivity more than a factor of 10 better than the current VLA. This will make the EVLA a prime tool for the study of the Evolving Universe. Among other observations, the EVLA will allow astronomers to distinguish dust from free-free emission in objects from local molecular clouds to ultraluminous infrared galaxies, to image disks and jets in local star forming regions, and to measure the star formation rate, irrespective of dust extinction, in high-redshift galaxies.
NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: julvesta@nrao.edu