The largest radio telescope in operation

On July 29, the European Astronomical Service (ESO) announced the super-radio telescope population in the Atacama desert (ALMA), located in northern Chile, ready to go into operation in the first phase later. When completing the installation of the 16th antenna on a total of 66 antennas of this world's largest astronomical project.

Telescope at Atacama. (Source: Internet)

The 16th antenna of the ALMA network, as well as all other antennas with a diameter of 12m and weighing nearly 100 tons, is the first antenna produced in Europe, with the participation and coordination of the US, Japan and Chile. The first antenna of ALMA was installed in September 2009.

ESO said the first scientific observations of ALMA will be conducted by the end of 2011 and although ALMA is in the process of finishing, but with 16 antennas present enough to outperform them all. telescopes in the same model.

The ALMA project, worth an estimated $ 600 million, was started construction a decade ago, installed on the Chajnantor plateau at a height of 5000m above the sea level in the driest desert in the world.

It is expected that after completion in 2013, ALMA will be used to study the origins of planets, stars, galaxies and the universe with 10-fold image resolution of the Hubble telescope, thanks to the ability capturing an antenna gives an advantage over optical telescopes for capturing light through a mirror.