ALMA, the World's Largest Radio Telescope, Grabs Its First Images

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 10.03.2011 at 2:15 pm 12 Comments

ALMA's First Image This is ALMA's first image, showing the Antennae Galaxies in two different wavelength ranges. The image was captured during the observatory's early testing phase, using only 12 antennas working together — the array will eventually have 66. European Southern Observatory

The world’s largest astronomical facility has opened its eyes, turning nearly two dozen antennae toward the heavens to study the building blocks of the cosmos. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array consists of 20 radio antennae for now, but will contain 66 by 2013, giving it a higher resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Appropriately enough, the first images captured the Antennae Galaxies, a pair of colliding galaxies replete with stars and stellar nurseries. ALMA’s 39- and 23-foot dish antennae can resolve areas of dense, cold gas that other telescopes could not detect.

ALMA sits in the high Chilean desert, about 16,000 feet above sea level and above much of the interfering atmosphere. These pictures were made with 12 telescopes situated relatively close together; science observations during the next few months will be even clearer.

Closer-situated antennae yield a wide field of view, so astronomers can search for items they want to study in more detail. Moving the antennae farther apart provides a narrower focus, like using a finer lens on a regular telescope. Instead of tunable knobs, ALMA has 192 separate antennae pads for the huge dishes to be moved around.

Astronomers submitted more than 900 research proposals for the telescope’s first 9 months of observations, which the European Southern Observatory whittled down to about 100. A few key subjects:

A nearby star system called AU Microscopii, just 33 light-years away, with an infant star harboring a ring of planetisimals;
The dusty disk surrounding HD142527, a young star 400 light-years away, which has enough material to make a dozen Jupiters;
and the great Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

ALMA observes light at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths, allowing observations of the farthest and oldest phenomena in the observable universe. It’s powerful enough to study the cold, dark remnants of exploded stars, including the first stars, which died a few hundred million years after the Big Bang — that’s an era known as the cosmic dawn.

While this is all going on, more of the 100-ton antennae will keep being added until the observatory is complete sometime in 2013.

Antenna Network Spies Antenna Galaxies: This image combines data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the ALMA network. Appropriately enough, it depicts the Antennae Galaxies, a pair of distorted colliding spiral galaxies about 70 million light-years away in the constellation Corvus (the Crow). ALMA, the world's most complex ground telescope, is an array of radio antennae. European Southern Observatory

[ESO]

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12 Comments

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10/03/11 at 3:04 pm

Besides the above article being very cool I learned a new word. I sure look forward to ALMA futher development! Very cool indeed!

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Planetesimals are solid objects thought to exist in protoplanetary disks and in debris disks.

A widely accepted theory of planet formation, the so-called planetesimal hypothesis of Viktor Safronov, states that planets form out of cosmic dust grains that collide and stick to form larger and larger bodies. When the bodies reach sizes of approximately one kilometer, then they can attract each other directly through their mutual gravity, enormously aiding further growth into moon-sized protoplanets. This is how planetesimals are often defined.

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xalar

10/03/11 at 9:44 pm

So each white dot is a star? The universe is a huge place. Makes me wonder what happens when you reach the edge.

If the image was larger I'd use it as my desktop background.

Why not go on past 66 panels. There was one telescope that was funded to go to 100 inches (presumably depth) before when the project called for around 96 inches.

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Blue

10/03/11 at 10:32 pm

The combine’s data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the ALMA network depicting the Antennae Galaxies is so beautiful and amazing! Heavy sigh....

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Blue

10/04/11 at 8:38 am

How fun! As I look at this picture, I see the shape of a head, forehead, eyes, nose, and upper lip and yes a chin. WoW! Maybe we found GOD in the heavens! All the beautiful colors associated with this vision seem most correct too! ;)

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Delkomatic

10/04/11 at 10:19 am

@blue.....

Smoke less?

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Blue

10/04/11 at 10:39 am

Delkomatic,
Perhaps my mind is at times a little foggy, but I never smoke!

Besides, seriously, you can't see a head in this picture too?

Maybe it’s just me. I did see a clown face in my Fruit Loops breakfast cereal the other day too! ;)

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michaelgorby

10/04/11 at 11:00 am

@Blue- It is certainly a sure and clear sign of human conceit to imagine that the creator of the entire universe would resemble in physical appearance the human species. One species out of 10 million living on a speck of dust in some random, unremarkable corner of the universe.

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Greg_NJ

10/04/11 at 1:01 pm

Hey! Bubba's back! ;(

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JediMindset

10/05/11 at 2:23 pm

@Greg_NJ
LMAO!!

way its so amazing. its because of science that we get to see these pictures. thank "god" for that.

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

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Tarek Abu Rayan

10/05/11 at 3:20 pm

LA ELLAHA ELLA ALLAH .
SOBHAN ALLAH THE GREATEST WHO LEARNED THE HUMAN KIND EVERY THING.

its great invention for all human kind , and we hope from non believers in GOD to think again and again with the CREATOR WHO CREATE THE ALL UNIVERSE IN 7 DAYS , AND IT CAN BE IN 1 DAY IF HE WISH.

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JediMindset

10/05/11 at 5:18 pm

lol

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

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10/06/11 at 7:08 pm

I see the same Abraham Lincoln face that is on a penny, huh?

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