To Learn More …

To learn more about Astronomy, visit the following websites:

Arecibo Observatory—The Arecibo Observatory is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), a national research center operated by Cornell University under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF).

National Optical Astronomy Observatories—NOAO is funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.

National Center for Supercomputing Applications—Multimedia Online Expo: Science for the Millennium Whispers from the Cosmos —High in a dry plain at Hat Creek in northern California sits the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association's (BIMA) radiosynthesis array. The BIMA array's many receiving dishes act as a single telescope, searching the heavens for clues to such questions as: Is space really empty? What lies between the stars?

Cosmos in a Computer—Witness the birth of the cosmos, watch the universe unfold, all from your desktop.

Center for Particle Astrophysics—The Center for Particle Astrophysics, an NSF Science and Technology Center, sees as its mission playing a leading role in the investigation of the central scientific problem of dark matter while developing a new model of scientific research more attuned to the multidisciplinary nature of our enterprise and the environment in which we live.

NSF Astronomy Program — NSF is the lead Federal agency for the support of ground-based astronomy. Program areas in the Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) include planetary astronomy, stellar astronomy and astrophysics, galactic astronomy, extragalactic astronomy and cosmology.

Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) — GONG is a community-based project to conduct a detailed study of solar internal structure and dynamics using helioseismology.

Grand Challenge Cosmology Consortium—GC³ is an NSF-funded HPCC grand challege project devoted to harnessing the power of parallel computers to explore the origin of large scale structure in the universe and how galaxies form. Consortium institutions include Princeton, MIT, U. Illinois, Indiana U., U.C. Santa Cruz, U. Pittsburgh and the NCSA and PSC supercomputer centers.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory—A research facility of the National Science Foundation, NRAO provides state-of-the-art radio telescope facilities for use by the scientific community.

Carnegie Observatories—The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (OCIW) is an organization founded by George Ellery Hale in 1904. Located in Pasadena, California, OCIW operates telescopes at its site on Cerro Las Campanas, Chile.

Carnegie Institution of Washington—The Carnegie Institution of Washington, a private, nonprofit organization engaged in basic research and advanced education in biology, astronomy, and the earth sciences, was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1902 and incorporated by Act of Congress in 1904.

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics — The Center for Astrophysics combines the resources and research facilities of the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under a single director to pursue studies of those basic physical processes that determine the nature and evolution of the universe.

General Links

NSF Image Library—This Library was created to illustrate the many areas of research supported by NSF. Whenever possible, we have tried to include images of actual NSF-supported research. For those areas of science where authentic photos were not available, we have used images from external sources that are representative of NSF research projects and activities. NSF is grateful to those external sources that have allowed us to use their material.

NSF: Celebrating 50 Years—Established in 1950, NSF is the Federal Government's only agency dedicated to the support of education and fundamental research in all scientific and engineering disciplines. Its purpose is to ensure that the United States maintains leadership in discovery, learning and innovation across science, mathematics and engineering. We have achieved this purpose repeatedly over the past 50 years.

Nifty50—The nifty50 are NSF-funded inventions, innovations and discoveries that have become commonplace in our lives.

Science Statistics—The Division of Science Resources Studies (SRS) fulfills the legislative mandate of the National Science Foundation Act to "… provide a central clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, and analysis of data on scientific and engineering resources, and to provide a source of information for policy formulation by other agencies of the Federal Government… " SRS is the nation's primary source of data on the science and engineering enterprise.

FastLane—FastLane is an interactive real-time system used to conduct NSF business over the Internet.

FastLane Award Searches—NSF provides several ways to research past (since 1989) and current awards. The FastLane server offers several options, including: list of recent awards; list of awards by program; list of awards by institution; and list of awards by state.

Online Document System—NSF encourages electronic dissemination of its documents. NSF's Online Document System includes all publications and forms available in electronic formats. You can search by document type, by NSF publication or form number, or by key word.

Custom News Service—The Custom News Service is available to anyone wishing to know about new NSF publications.