We are currently running a user survey aimed to help us assess user support needs over the next decade and when the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) will come online. We are very grateful to everyone that has already participated in the survey.

The survey is temporarily unavailable due to unexpected necessary technical maintenance on the platform. We will notify you as soon as it is back online so you can continue your participation. Once back online, the survey will remain open for at least two more weeks.

With the successful start of Cycle 13, ALMA users will be able to benefit from features recently implemented or updated in various ALMA tools and interfaces. These include the web-based OT, SnooPI, the ALMA Pipeline, and the ALMA Science Archive. Click "Read More" to read a brief overview with links to more detailed documentation.

Are you an author on an upcoming publication based on ALMA data that could be relevant to the wider public? If so, pitch your result to press@eso.org! You can read more about the types of stories we are after at: https://www.eso.org/public/news/pitch-your-research/. You can also check previously published releases for inspiration at https://www.eso.org/public/news/.

Since the process of evaluating, preparing and reviewing ESO press releases can be lengthy, please send your paper to us as soon as it has been submitted to a journal (no later than 4-6 weeks prior to expected publication). While only a few pitches are successful, the reward is high: if your science does make it into an ESO press release, blog post or picture of the week, it will reach a broad community of people around the world. 

The ALMASPACE (ALMA Science Platforms for Analysis and Calibration in Europe) development study officially kicked off in Gothernburg on 21 September 2026. Over the next two years, the study will investigate how the European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) network can support its user community with the computing and storage resources needed to fully exploit the scientific potential of the ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU). 

By bringing together the expertise, infrastructure and user-support experience of the entire European ARC network, ALMASPACE aims to turn the Science Platform concept into a concrete and scalable pathway for the next generation of ALMA science.

ALMA successfully started Cycle 13 observations during the Chilean afternoon of September 30th. That also marked the successful close of Cycle 12 with another record! During Cycle 12, ALMA successfully acquired and delivered more than 4700 hours of science-quality data (QA0 PASS) with the 12-m Array and set a new record on all three arrays (12-m, 7-m, and Total Power Arrays). This was achieved despite Cycle 12 having the most observing time lost due to weather in the past decade. Following the successes of Cycle 10 and Cycle 11, this achievement further demonstrates the maturity and efficiency of ALMA operations.

A new ALMA development study, titled 'Next-Generation ALMA Vacuum Windows Sub-Wavelength Surface Structuring,' was officially kick-off at Chalmers university on 22 September 2026. The study is led by the Group of Advanced Receiver Development (GARD), Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden in collaboration with the NOVA sub-mm group, in Groningen, the Netherlands.

New information for ALMA Principal Investigators (PIs) in Cycle 13: Starting with Cycle 13, Phase 2 information for approved programs will be shown to PIs through the Snooping Project Interface (SnooPI) after the Scheduling Blocks (SBs) have been created. SnooPI now provides field and spectral information for every science target in each SB (e.g., target coordinates and radial velocities, spectral window frequencies, and correlator setups). Additionally, spatial and spectral visualizers to facilitate displaying this information will also be available in SnooPI after 29 September, 2026. These capabilities are similar to what was previously provided through the Phase 2 Observing Tool (OT). More detailed information can be found in the SnooPI User Manual.

As a consequence, ALMA will no longer provide a Phase 2 version of the OT and PIs will need to check SB information through SnooPI.

ALMA has analysed the refereed ALMA publications in the period from 2012 to 2024. The study analyses publication statistics related to various aspects, e.g., science categories, geographical distribution, archival research, time to publication, publication fraction, and citations. Among other results, the analysis shows that about 70% of observed projects were used in at least one publication, and ALMA publications so far were written by more than 9400 unique authors. The median time to first publication since data delivery is 2.1 years, and about 40% of publications made use of archival data in 2024.

The publication evolution follows that of other high impact observatories as the Hubble  Space Telescope and Very Large Telescope. In 2024, the impact factor for ALMA publications, defined as the total number of citations received in a given year stemming from publications of the previous two years, is larger than that of all other major astronomical facilities. Links to the full publication (Stoehr et al. 2026, PASP) can be found here.