Will The World's Largest Telescope Help Unveil The Secrets Of Our Origins?

By - 347 words

Language

Reading Level

Listen to Article

On March 13th, 2013, hundreds of scientists, government officials and journalists made the trek to Northern Chile to witness the official inauguration of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array or ALMA, the world's most powerful ground-based telescope.

Unlike other telescopes, ALMA comprises of 66 antennas most measuring about 40-feet in diameter. They are all set up to collaborate and produce one image which is transmitted to the fastest computer ever used on an astronomical site that processes the data into one final picture. The antennas can be remotely steered to zoom in onto any section of the sky that the scientists want to focus on and, with the help of giant transport vehicles, also moved around within the 16-km plateau they are currently situated in.

Not only is the telescope's resolution ten times sharper than that of the Hubble telescope, but it can also, detect radio signals, which means that ALMA will be able to bypass the dense clouds of deep space and look beyond. This gives researchers hope that they will finally get a glimpse of the galaxies that were formed right after the Big Bang. If the images produced by just the few working antennas in the past are any indication, they may be right.

In order to maximize the visibility, ALMA was built in the world's driest desert, the Atacama, which boasts nearly non-existent cloud cover, dry air, lack of light pollution and almost zero radio interference from surrounding cities. In addition, it has been built at an elevation of 16,500 feet - well above the Earth's atmosphere, assuring scientists of the crispest possible pictures. In fact, the altitude is so high that scientists working at the observatory have to often use oxygen masks.

Researchers are hoping that this $1.3 billion USD Observatory, a 10-year joint effort between the scientists of North America, Asia and Europe, will finally solve mysteries like how individual stars were formed. This in turn, could enlighten them about how the sun, planets and ultimately, how life as we know it, came into existence - So stay tuned!

Resources: theverge.com,huffingtonpost.com, dailymail.co.uk

Cite Article
Learn Keywords in this Article
108 Comments
  • browardover 11 years
    awsome
    • hotdoggy5481over 11 years
      i want to buy that
      • 3deg
        3degover 11 years
        Oh and I don't understand why we are the only interested in this article. So those people that have not read the article called Will the Worlds Largest Telescope Help Unveil the Secrets of our Origins?
        • 3deg
          3degover 11 years
          I really really really really want one of those! I can not imagine living without one.......because I already do. I just want one so so so so so bad. Oh and I am awesome.
          • 3deg
            3degover 11 years
            I want to read this article so so so bad just by reading the comments.
            • Mario fan over 11 years
              I wonder if they make it In years or months so cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool I want to see it and see space with it and see how it works
              • ki$haover 11 years
                so kool and I wantz 2 c thatz
                • awsomeover 11 years
                  thatz so freaking kool!!
                  • 3cap
                    3capover 11 years
                    I need one of those!!
                  • bobover 11 years
                    so cool i love astronomy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!