Atacama Large Millimeter Array

Atacama Large Millimeter Array Courtesy Alma/L. Calcada/H.Heyer/H.Zodet/ESO/NAO/NRAO

Gallery: Atacama Large Millimeter Array

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in the Chilean Andes, the most powerful radio-telescope array on the planet, powered up its first three antennas earlier this year. By 2013, engineers should finish installing at least 60 more of the 39-foot-diameter, 100-ton dishes (plus four smaller dishes). Together they will capture the narrow spectrum of radiation that can pass through interstellar dust clouds, thereby allowing scientists to observe, among other things, the gravitational collapse that initiates the birth of stars and the red-shifted radiation emitted 10 billion years ago from the far reaches of the universe.

almaobservatory.org