World's largest telescope goes into operation
With 66 giant parabolic antennas, ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array), the world's largest radio telescope, officially went into operation on March 13 in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Launched in 2003, the ALMA project is one of the world's largest scientific programs and is the result of a collaboration between many countries including the European Union, the United States, Japan, and Chile, with an estimated cost of over 1 billion euros.
(Source: space.com)
The project aims to explore the most remote and mysterious regions of space, to find out the origin of the formation of the universe. ALMA is located in the Atacama Desert, Chile, at an altitude of 5000 m above sea level, which is also the driest place in the world with an average rainfall cycle of 14 years.
"This is truly the world's largest telescope that we have never built before," said Gianini Marconi, a scientist on the ALMA project.
ALMA consists of 66 huge parabolic antennas (50 were operational on inauguration day), each about 12 m tall and weighing over 100 tonnes. When connected together, they form a giant radio telescope with a diameter of 16 km.
With its enormous size, this telescope can observe the most distant regions in space, helping us understand the origin of the universe and the formation of galaxies. In addition, ALMA can also discover the origin of organic matter, an important element of life, creating a new step forward in the field of astrochemistry.
"With ALMA, we can make observations with the best resolution and sensitivity ever. This could completely change our concept of a certain part of space. This is also an opportunity for us to find answers to what has so far been beyond human reach," said Massimo Tarengui, representative of the European Southern Observatory, a partner in the project.
The images captured by ALMA will be processed by Corrélateur, one of the most powerful central computers in the world, designed specifically for this project./.
According to (Vietnam+) - VT
