Science is awesome.
Click the image to biggify.
The European Southern Observatory says:
The 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-metre diameter antenna has arrived at the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 metres above sea level. Here, it joins antennas from the other international ALMA partners, bringing the total number at the AOS to 16.
The plateau's elevated location -- 2100 metres higher than the OSF -- gives it the extremely dry conditions that are vital for observing at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths, since these faint signals from space are easily absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere
- Log in to post comments
More like this
"We conducted the first fully blind, three-dimensional search for cool gas in the early universe. Through this, we discovered a population of galaxies that is not clearly evident in any other deep surveys of the sky." -Chris Carilli
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field and its successor images represent…
“Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.” -Dag Hammarskjold
One of relativity’s oddest predictions is the existence of black holes, objects so dense and massive that nothing, not event light can…
“You may have heard the world is made up of atoms and molecules, but it’s really made up of stories. When you sit with an individual that’s been here, you can give quantitative data a qualitative overlay.” -William Turner
This blog has always been about the cosmic story common to us all: the story…
"I went into a clothing store, and the lady asked me what size I was. I said, 'Actual'. I'm not to scale." -Demitri Martin
When you look out at the Universe, what you can see is limited, at the most fundamental level, by the size of what you look with. This is why you can see dimmer objects at…
Chajnantor is pronounced 'chuck-nan-torr', which I found on their website in 2009.
My magazine (Cranes Today; very niche, I know) covered the equipment used to do this job some time back. It's pretty clever stuff, considering the conditions it is working in. Here's the article:
http://www.cranestodaymagazine.com/story.asp?sectioncode=66&storycode=2…
Cool! Thanks Will!