In this photo taken from a neighboring extinct volcano, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array is nearly complete. Here, at 16,500 feet up in the Chilean Andes, 66 of the most complex radio telescopes on Earth will combine their radio views for the first time in late 2013. In this photo from December 2012, the array has 48 antennas.
Stormy Sunset Over ALMA
A break in the clouds during a snowstorm creates a dramatic scene at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in northern Chile.
Snowstorm at ALMA
At 16,500 feet in the Chilean Andes, ALMA experiences some extreme weather conditions. They don’t last long, but they blow through in a fury. The benefits of the dry, high site outweigh the occasional storms, and engineers made sure that all models of the antennas were covered in carbon fiber armor to withstand the Atacama’s fierce environment.
ALMA Gets Adjusted
Each panel on an ALMA antenna’s 12-meter dish must be carefully hand-adjusted to its neighbors to create a surface that is a perfect parabola, nearly a mirror finish. The wavelengths of radio light that ALMA collects are so tiny that even a hair’s difference in the parabola shape will scatter away the signals.
Sunbeams Grace ALMA
Beams of sunshine are captured behind the distant mountains that ring the ALMA site in northern Chile. A 7-meter Japanese antenna and North America’s final 12-meter antenna await a day of testing in the Operations Support Facility.
Dormitory and Cafeteria
Completed in 1959, this building housed a dormitory, cafeteria, and lounge for staff and visitors to Green Bank. Radio telescopes are often located in remote areas, and a large portion of their construction costs goes into creating astronomical villages to support their staff.