LLANO CHAJNANTOR: The world’s largest ground-based observatory opened for business yesterday in the desert of northern Chile, wielding unprecedented power to peer into the remotest regions of the universe.
The ALMA space observatory was inaugurated here at a ceremony attended by Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and other dignitaries.
“ALMA is a huge telescope 16km in diameter,” said the facility’s director Thijs de Graauw, as the huge observatory was declared officially opened. Gianni Marconi, an astronomer at the massive ground array of telescopes, recently proclaimed that ALMA is “the largest observatory that has ever been built.”
ALMA — short for the Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array, an acronym which means “soul” in Spanish — is a joint effort among North American, European and Asian agencies.
Located at an altitude of some 15,000 feet and with almost no humidity or vegetation to block its view of the heavens, ALMA is outfitted with 66 antennas ranging in diameter from 23 feet to 39 feet.
“What is so very special about this place is that right here above our heads, there is virtually no water vapour. There is just so little that whatever light is emitted from a heavenly body, galaxy or star, it gets here with no interference” Marconi said. AFP
