The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a federally funded research and development center of the United States National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. for the purpose of radio astronomy.
It is a research facility that is operated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States. The organization operates a number of radio telescopes and other instruments for astronomical research, including the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, and the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia. These telescopes are used to study a wide range of astronomical phenomena, such as the formation of stars and galaxies, the properties of the interstellar medium, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. In addition to observational research, the NRAO also conducts research and development in areas such as telescope design and signal processing.