Latest Atacama Large Millimeter Array Stories

[ Video 1 ] | [ Video 2 ] Star formation in “dark markings of the sky” A new image from the APEX (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment) telescope in Chile shows a sinuous filament of cosmic dust more than ten light-years long. In it, newborn stars are hidden, and dense clouds of gas are on the verge of collapsing to form yet more stars. It is one of the regions of star formation closest to us. The cosmic dust grains are so cold that observations at wavelengths of around one millimeter,...

The year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organization in the world. The anniversary year is an opportunity to look back at ESO’s history, celebrate its scientific and technological achievements and look forward to its next ambitious programs. ESO is planning several exciting activities during the year. On 5 October 1962, representatives from five European countries — Belgium, France, Germany, the...

NEWTON, N.C., Oct. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirteen 12-meter antennas manufactured by General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies have been successfully installed at the 16,500-foot-high Chajnantor plateau in Chile, home to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) astronomical observatory. Located in the Andes mountains, the 115-ton, highly specialized antennas form part of an 11-mile-wide international astronomy project. When it is completed in 2013, scientists will use the...

[ Watch the Video ] Astronomers have opened up its doors to a new ground-base telescope that will help give scientists a peak at the places that have never been explored. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has released an image of a merging pair of galaxies as part of its grand opening. ALMA is the largest and most expensive radio observatory on Earth and was funded by several different space agencies. Radio observatories collect tiny waves given off by the...

  The ultimate in high altitude, high-tech catering has arrived in Chile to serve chilled "provisions" to the telescopes at the largest astronomical complex in the world, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Until now, servicing the state-of-the-art superconducting receivers inside an ALMA telescope has required hauling the entire 115-ton telescope from its observing site at 16,500 feet down to a support facility at 9,500 feet. The dangerous 40-mile roundtrip, atop...

Getting ready for ALMA's first scientific observationsThe first European antenna for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has reached new heights, having been transported to the observatory's Array Operations Site (AOS) on 27 July 2011. The 12-meter diameter antenna has arrived at the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 meters above sea level. Here, it joins antennas from the other international ALMA partners, bringing the total number at the AOS to 16.Although 16 sounds like just...

Astronomers gazing deep into the night sky to uncover the Universe's secrets will soon be able to discover even more star-births and planets thanks to new telescopes being built in Chile and Mexico drawing on space technology. Leading-edge production technology, developed by Italian company Media Lario Technologies for the extraordinary X-ray telescope on ESA's XMM-Newton spaceborne observatory, will be used for both the world's biggest radio telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array...

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has passed a key milestone crucial for the high quality images that will be the trademark of this revolutionary new tool for astronomy. Astronomers and engineers have, for the first time, successfully linked three of the observatory's antennas at the 5000-meter elevation observing site in northern Chile. Having three antennas observing in unison paves the way for precise images of the cool Universe at unprecedented resolution, by...

NEWTON, N.C., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The first of 25 North American antennas to be manufactured by General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies for the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) astronomical observatory was recently installed at the ALMA Operations Site located high in the Chilean Andes. Traveling on a custom-built transporter from the ALMA Operations Support Facility at 9,500 feet above sea level, the 12-meter, 100-ton antenna made a 22-mile trek to the Array Operations...

A team of astronomers and engineers at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have made the first interferometric measurements of radio signals "” so-called "fringes" "” of an astronomical source from the observatory's 5000-meter "high site" of Chajnantor. This is an important technical step for ALMA, as it used a full suite of the production equipment, including two of the 12-meter diameter antennas, and sophisticated electronic systems for receiving and correlating the...