The final antenna for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) project has been taken up to the high-level site at the ALMA Observatory, 5.000 meters above sea level. Its arrival completes the complement of 66 ALMA antennas on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile—where they will in future work together as one giant telescope.
The 66th antenna was transported to the Array Operations Site (AOS) on Friday 13 June 2014. The 12-meter diameter dish is the 25th and final European antenna to be transported up to the Chajnantor Plateau. It will work alongside its European predecessors, as well as 25 North American 12-meter antennas and 16 East Asian (four 12-meter and twelve 7-meter) antennas. The global ALMA collaboration is the largest ground-based astronomical project in existence.
The ALMA Observatory was inaugurated by the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, in March 2013. This signified the completion of all of the major systems of the giant telescope and the formal transition from a construction project to a fully-fledged observatory.
“We are very proud of having reached this important milestone for the ALMA project”, says Pierre Cox, ALMA Director. “It marks the end of the delivery of state-of-the-art technology systems to its final destination, the Chajnantor plateau”.
ALMA probes the Universe using light with millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, between infrared light and radio waves in the electromagnetic spectrum. Light at these wavelengths originates from vast cold clouds in interstellar space and from some of the earliest and most distant galaxies in the Universe. The telescope will provide astronomers with a window into the mysterious cold Universe where secrets of our cosmic origins are waiting to be discovered.
The video below is the transportation of the final ALMA antenna to the Chajnantor Plateau filmed by a hexacopter.
Credit: Ariel Marinkovic / X-Cam
The photo below is the 66th ALMA antenna just after arrival at the Chajnantor Plateau.
Credit: Ariel Marinkovic / X-Cam
