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World's Most Powerful Telescope Begins Search For Origin of the Universe

Posted by samzenpus on from the where-the-sidewalk-ends dept.

MrSeb writes "The largest astronomical installation in the world is now operational. ALMA, or the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, is a vast radio telescope made out of 66 12- and 7-meter dish antennae situated 5,000m above sea level, in Chile. Its purpose is to seek out new life and new civilizations and to boldly go where no telescope has gone before. But no, seriously: its job is to peer into the past and investigate ancient stars and nebulae, peer at exoplanets that might support human (or alien) life, and hopefully learn more about interstellar creation and destruction. For now only 20 out of 66 antennae are in place, but when it is complete — late next year — it will have a resolving power far greater than Hubble, according to the European Space Observatory (ESO) that operates ALMA."

15 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Undersells ALMAs capabilities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    As an astrophysicist who's highly interested in using ALMA, I can say that this short description undersells the capabilities of ALMA. While the image resolution is going to be greater than that of Hubble, ALMA will also be observing wavelength ranges previously unobserved from the ground. While space based instruments such as Herschel have observed some of these ranges in the past, these observations don't even come close to the spatial resolution of ALMA.

    1. Re:Undersells ALMAs capabilities by durrr · · Score: 3, Funny

      So approximately how many megapixels?

  2. Units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    How large is a "large millimeter"?

    1. Re:Units by snowraver1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's actually exactly an inch. The Americans were tired of being hassled for not using SI units, so they just renamed them.

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    2. Re:Units by ZankerH · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's (Atacama (large (millimetre array))), not (Atacama (large (millimetre)) array).

      S-expressions: They're superior to natural grammar.

    3. Re:Units by St.Creed · · Score: 2

      You (are (totally correct))

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
    4. Re:Units by arth1 · · Score: 2

      That's the emacs lisp explanation.
      The vi explanation is :s/e/e -/

  3. humph.. telescope... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ya'll don't need no fancy-schmancy teley-scope to see the church on the corner

    1. Re:humph.. telescope... by wierd_w · · Score: 3, Funny

      I think one of the problems with modern aastronomy is that they often cannot help BUT see that church down the street.

      I think it might have something to do with the las-vegas style neon lights, dancing searchlight beams, the well illuminated "second coming landing pad" which tries earnestly to coax jesus to put his foot down there, or the fact that it is owned and operated by Landover Ministries.

      But then again, I am one of those heathen "unsaved" that only makes 30k/year, and am excluded from even bronze level membership, so maybe I hold a little bit of jealous bias when I say that it would be a good thing to regulalrly cut power to that light pollution retching eyesore so that astronomers might get some REAL insight into the nature of the heavens, but I don't think it would be a whole lot of it.

  4. Irrelevant comparison by vlm · · Score: 2

    it will have a resolving power far greater than Hubble,

    Didn't know they operate in the same frequency band.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  5. Not comparable by kelemvor4 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why is this being compared to hubble? Hubble records information in 390 to 750 nm while alma records 0.3 to 9.6 mm. I'm not saying it's not valuable, just that the comparison was a poor choice.

    1. Re:Not comparable by Teun · · Score: 4, Informative
      The comparison was not about the colours (wavelength or frequency) but about the observable resolution.

      In other words, this radio telescope will be able to discern details the Hubble cannot see.

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  6. ESO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    ESO means European Southern Observatory not European Space Observatory!

  7. Not just ESO by dvase · · Score: 3, Informative

    Small correction to the summary, ESO is not the only organization operating ALMA. It is an international partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.

  8. Re:Center of the universe = beginning? by expatriot · · Score: 2

    From here. If you went somewhere far away and checked, it would be from there. That's because space is expanding between objects, not objects moving farther apart.