PF-10-0011

ngVLA: Cradle of Life Science Cases and the Status of Preliminary Operations Plan

Catarina Ubach, Anthony Remijan, Eric Murphy, NRAO ngVLA O.P. Team, Brenda Matthews, David Wilner

The next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is designed to replace both the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), to be an interferometric array with ten times greater sensitivity and spatial resolution than the current VLA and ALMA, operating in the frequency range of 1.2 - 116 GHz (25 to 0.26 centimeters). This unique combination of milliarsecond resolution and high sensitivity will allow the ngVLA to achieve the key science goal of unveiling the formation of Solar System analogues on terrestrial scales. It is expected that imaging will directly reveal the presence of dust concentrations driven by planet-disk interactions, such as rings and azimuthal asymmetries. Additionally, numerical simulations show that the ngVLA can readily detect disk dust features produced by a forming Earth-mass planet orbiting at 1 au around a Sun-like pre-main-sequence star at the 150-pc distance of nearby dark clouds. These are only a few of the several examples on how ngVLA will impact the fields of Stars, Planetary Systems, and their Origins. Concurrently, work has begun on the development of the ngVLA Preliminary Operations Plan, which will provide the high-level organization of the ngVLA steady-state operations, including the Concept for Science and Data Center Operations, a program for broader impacts and education and outreach. The ngVLA is a design and development project of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.