Who owns ALMA telescope?
The telescopes were provided by the European, North American and East Asian partners of ALMA. The American and European partners each provided twenty-five 12-meter diameter antennas, that compose the main array.
Where is the ALMA telescope located?
northern Chile
The ALMA site, some 50 km east of San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile, is in one of the driest places on Earth. Astronomers find unsurpassed conditions for observing, but they must operate a frontier observatory under very difficult conditions.
What telescope is in the Atacama Desert?
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) is a six-meter diameter telescope located on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile, near the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory.
What type of telescope is ALMA?
radio telescope
ALMA is a transformative radio telescope that can study cosmic light that straddles the boundary between radio and infrared. Most objects in the Universe emit this kind of energy, so the ability to detect it has been a driver for astronomers for decades.
How much did ALMA cost?
The ALMA observatory cost $1.3 billion to construct, with the price tag being split by the three sponsoring regions: North America, Europe and East Asia. Of the total cost, about $500 million was contributed by U.S. taxpayers.
Can you visit ALMA observatory?
ALMA is open every Saturday and Sunday morning to members of the public who want to visit its facilities located in northern Chile (50 km from San Pedro de Atacama). Visitors must register in advance by completing and submitting the form below. ALMA does not allow visits from children under 4 years old.
What did the ALMA telescope discover?
ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) is the most complex observatory ever built. With the unique ability to see and create detailed imagery of the parts of space that are difficult to see, ALMA can see star and planet formation, black holes, and the first galaxies of the universe.
What does the ALMA telescope observe?
ALMA observes the light emitted by cold temperature objects in space, which allows us to untangle deep mysteries about planet formation or “digital fingerprints” of complex, even organic, molecules, of which to date little, if anything, is known.
How does ALMA work?
ALMA uses sophisticated atmospheric models, climate monitoring stations and radiometers to measure the amount of water vapor present in the line of vision of each antenna, to correct these undesired atmospheric effects. A schematic view of the path followed by an astronomic signal once it enters an ALMA antenna.
What is Project Alma?
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a giant radio telescope which was constructed in Chile in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, through global partnership of East Asia (including Japan), North America, and the member states of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the …
How do you get to Alma Chile?
ALMA is open every Saturday and Sunday morning to members of the public who want to visit its facilities located in northern Chile (50 km from San Pedro de Atacama). Visitors must register in advance by completing and submitting the form below.
What has ALMA found?
In April 2012, ALMA made another discovery: After pointing only a quarter of its antennas towards one of the brightest stars in the sky, named Fomalhaut, a group of astronomers obtained an unprecedented image of the disc surrounding the star, orbiting right between two exoplanets.
Where are the radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert?
Related media on Wikimedia Commons. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths.
How big is the Atacama Large Millimeter Array?
The main dish has a diameter of 12 m and consists of 264 aluminium panels with an average surface accuracy of 17 micrometres ( rms ). The telescope was officially inaugurated on September 25, 2005. The APEX telescope is a modified ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) prototype antenna and is at the site of the ALMA observatory.
Who was involved in the ALMA radio telescope?
ALMA was initially a 50-50 collaboration between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and European Southern Observatory (ESO) and later extended with the help of the other Japanese, Taiwanese, and Chilean partners.
How many antennas are in the ALMA array?
The ALMA correlator. The initial ALMA array is composed of 66 high-precision antennas, and operates at wavelengths of 9.6 to 0.3 millimeters (31 to 1000 GHz).
