World's largest radio telescope goes into operation

The European Space Agency (ESO) announced that the Atacama Desert Radio Telescope Array (ALMA), located in northern Chile, is ready to begin phase 1 of operations after completing the installation of the 16th antenna out of a total of 66 antennas of the world's largest astronomical project.

The 16th antenna of the ALMA network, like all the other antennas, has a diameter of 12 m and weighs nearly 100 tons, is the first antenna to be manufactured in Europe, with the participation and coordination of the United States, Japan and Chile. The first antenna of ALMA was installed in September 2009.

Telescope at Atacama.

ESO says ALMA's first scientific observations will be conducted in late 2011 and although ALMA is still in the process of being completed, its current 16 antennas are enough to make the ensemble outperform all other telescopes of its class.

The ALMA project, worth an estimated $600 million, began construction a decade ago, and is being installed on the Chajnantor plateau at an altitude of 5,000m above sea level in the world's driest desert, the Atacama.

It is expected that after completion in 2013, ALMA will be used to study the origin of planets, stars, galaxies and the universe with image resolution 10 times that of the Hubble telescope, thanks to its antenna wave capturing ability, which gives it an advantage over optical telescopes in capturing light through mirrors./.

(TTXVN/Vietnam+)