Step by step to the final location

2009/09/24 Lakar Iraizoz, Oihane - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Teknologia
• Astronomia

The first antenna of the ALMA telescope is already in its final location. Specifically, the Chajnantor has been installed at the Observatory, in the Chilean desert of Atacama, about 5,100 meters high.

In total, the telescope will have 66 antennas that will work at once. However, before commissioning, the antennas must be mounted and tested, for which they have a new installation with more sustainable conditions than those of the Chajnantor at 2,900 meters high.

The distance between the two is 28 kilometers and the first antenna has taken about seven hours to take. Gradually they have come the way to ensure that the antenna was not damaged. And according to those responsible, it has arrived correctly.

The Chajnantor observatory is an ideal place to make the observations that the ALMA telescope will make. In fact, it will work with millimeter and subilimetric waves, that is, with waves between infrared light and radio waves (so far the universe has hardly been studied with a wavelength light of this dimension).

To do this, the telescope must be in certain environmental conditions. For example, it is essential that the atmosphere is very dry, since water vapor absorbs the waves of that range of measures. And they are at the Chajnantor observatory in the Atacama Desert.

Image courtesy of: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)