ESO ALMA Giant Radio Telescope Reaches Full Power with 66 Antennas

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) consists of 66 antennas and is located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. 

North America and Asia each provided 25 and East Asia gave 16. They will helps answer cosmic origin questions.

Credit: ESO/M. Marchesi

The antenna was delivered Monday (Sept. 30) to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and is expected to be installed by the end of the year. ALMA has been in operation for years, adding antennas as it goes.

With this last antenna one — No. 66 of the dozens provided by Europe, North America and Asia — the telescope will reach its maximum sensitivity.

Phil Jewell

"This is an important milestone in a project that has already expanded our understanding of the universe," Phil Jewell, the North American ALMA project director, said in a statement.

"Since the delivery of the first antenna in 2009, ALMA has enabled unprecedented research and made startling discoveries. The international scientific community eagerly awaits the new capabilities ALMA will provide now that it is reaching its full potential."

The giant ALMA radio telescope officially opened for business in March, when all major systems were put online and the heaviest phase of construction finished.

When complete, the radio telescope array will stretch across nearly 10 miles (16 kilometers) of Chile's Atacama Desert.

The $1.3 billion ALMA telescope is over seen by the European Southern Observatory and is by far the largest instrument capable of making observations in the submillimeter wavelength.

Submillimeter astronomy uses wavelengths that are longer than radio waves, but shorter than visible light. It allows astronomers to peer through dust to see stars and planets being born, among other phenomena.

ALMA's huge antennas pick up sky signals individually. A supercomputer then combines their observations and calculates the signals' direction, similar to how humans use their two ears to pinpoint the location of the sound.