Spanish speakers can now experience the thrill of exploring the Universe with ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. ALMA, which is located 5,000 meters above sea level in the Chilean Andes, is the world’s most advanced astronomical observatory.
To bring the public to this remote yet amazing location, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has launched the Spanish-language version of its popular ALMA Explorer website.
This rich multimedia experience contains behind-the-scenes videos, interviews with scientists and engineers, and stunning imagery of the telescope and its surrounding landscape high in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile.
This online tour is also filled with astounding details of the building and operation of the 66 high-precision antennas that give ALMA its unprecedented sensitivity and resolution.
The Spanish virtual tour is narrated by famed Chilean radio and TV announcer Fernando Solis Lara, who for more than 25 years has been the official voice for TVN — one of the biggest public television networks in Chile. Solis Lara is also the voiceover talent for Universal Channel (LATAM feed) and Fox Sports. He also is the Spanish voice for Neil deGrasse Tyson in the 2014 remake of the acclaimed science series Cosmos.
Through the ALMA Explorer, visitors will learn about ALMA’s two main locations: and the Array Operations Site, which houses ALMA’s supercomputing correlator; and the Operations Support Facility, where the scientists, engineers, and technicians oversee the day-to-day operations of the telescope. Visitors will also see the beauty of the natural and human environment surrounding ALMA, where local communities preserve the rich ancestral heritage of one of the oldest native ethnic groups in Chile.
You can visit the ALMA Explorer in Spanish here: ALMA Explorer (Spanish)
The original English version is here: ALMA Explorer (English)
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The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).
ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.
