March 14, 2013

Some ALMA antennae (Photo ESO/C. Malin)

Yesterday the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA), was officially inaugurated. It’s an astronomical radiointerferometro built in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, composed of 66 antennas of 12 and 7 meters that can observe at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths. The purpose of ALMA is to study the birth of stars and planets, even in the early universe.