Will Armentrout

At my core, I am an observational astronomer, and I have used telescopes spanning optical to infrared to radio wavelengths. I have many hundreds of hours of hands-on observing experience with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and Very Large Array (VLA). Though the bulk of my training is in radio astronomy, I'm always looking to broaden my research horizons to tackle problems in Galactic star formation across the electromagnetic spectrum.

As an astronomer at the Green Bank Observatory, I serve as lead for astronomer training programs, undergraduate and graduate student education programs, radar observations, government contract observations, and 20-meter telescope development. I also maintain my own research program and support a variety of other programs around the observatory.

Aside from this work, I serve as a Space Operations Officer with the United States Air Force at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, and I am transferring into the Space Force in Summer 2026 (part time). I received my commission in September 2022.

Since 2020, I have given more than 40 public talks to over 1,600 people in 5 states and 3 countries. I've talked with students from 3rd grade through college, libraries, Kiwanis Clubs, business organizations, and more. I have also presented professional talks at observatories, universities, and research centers across the world, from Europe to Africa to South America. Reach out -- I'd love to talk shop or see how we could share the stories of the stars with your classroom or organization!

My research focuses mainly on Galactic high-mass star formation and Galactic structure. I have worked on teams aiming to provide a complete census of Galactic HII regions. HII regions are areas of hot, ionized gas surrounding stars 10x or more massive than our Sun. They can be seen across the entire Galaxy at radio wavelengths and trace the structure Milky Way, including spiral arms and other features of our home Galaxy. This work spans from the most distant areas of high-mass star formation in our Galaxy (the Outer Scutum-Centaurus Arm, OSC) to the faintest population of stars still able to produce a detectable HII region. Since high-mass stars form preferentially in spiral arms and have exceedingly short lifetimes compared to the age of our Galaxy, completing the census of Galactic HII regions also gives us a global picture of the current structure and star formation within the Milky Way.

Planetary and near-Earth radar is an increasingly important component of my work and research at the Observatory. We are developing a high-power (500 kW) planetary radar system capable of sub-meter scale imaging at the distance of the Moon. With our current low-power prototype system (with no more power than a home microwave), we have already made the highest resolution images of the Moon ever taken from the Earth. For more information, check out this presentation or our team page at this link.

My postdoctoral position in Green Bank was 50% individual research, 50% service to the observatory. My science time focused on the Observatory's increased high-frequency observing capabilities (up to frequencies of 116 GHz), including molecular gas observations of the Milky Way's most distant star formation regions with the Argus instrument. Argus, a 16-beam array operating from 74-116 GHz allows fast mapping of CO, HCN, HCO+ and many other molecular and dense gas tracers. My service time varied from training visiting observers on site, envisioning the next decade+ of Green Bank science for the Astro2020 Decadal Review, and testing and developing instrumentation.

I received Space Operations training at Vandenberg Space Force Base (CA) and mission training at Peterson Space Force Base (CO) before deploying to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

My siblings and I are working to redevelop property in our hometown of Ford City, Pennsylvania. We're poetically incorporated as Constellations, LLC. The stars in a constellation are linked only by human imagination. Together, we are helping to revitalize our Rust Belt town and bring these 100+ year old beauties back to their former glory.