Jean E. Lane's Imagine This: ALMA: InSearch of Cosmic Knowledge
ALMA, short fo...: ALMA: In Search of Cosmic Knowledge ALMA, short for “Atacama Large Millimeter Array,” is the largest observatory ever built. The ob...
Friday, January 22, 2016
ALMA: In
Search of Cosmic Knowledge
ALMA, short for “Atacama Large Millimeter Array,” is
the largest observatory ever built. The observatory is located at an altitude
of 3.1 miles high on the Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean desert near San
Pedro De Atacama, in a place so dry and red it appears that it could be Mars.
Dozens of antennas stare at the sky in unison. There is an array of 66 radio
telescopes with a diameter of 39 feet and 23 feet observing the sky at
millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths. They can see deeper and farther in
this light than any telescope before. ALMA’s purpose is to provide insight on
the birth of stars as well as detailed imaging of local star and planet
formation.
As you might expect, a project like this was an
international partnership between Europe, the United States, Canada, several
countries from East Asia and the Republic of Chile. With 30 years of planning
and 10 years of construction the entire project took thousands of scientists
and engineers from around the world to complete. The total price tag was
approximately $1.3 billion dollars and was split by the three sponsoring
regions. Of the total cost the United States taxpayers contributed about $500
million.
The Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in Chile has
been fully operational since March of 2013. ALMA combines dozens of these individual
radio telescope dishes into a single observing instrument. What is amazing to
me is that the resolution will be five times greater than that of the Hubble
Space Telescope.
Some facts about ALMA that intrigued me:
·
The observatory is accurate enough to
detect a golf ball nine miles away.
·
This high altitude is one of the driest
places on Earth. This means no clouds.
·
The dish design is almost perfect which
prevent any loss of incoming radio waves.
·
Each ALMA antenna must be kept at a
chilling -452 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent noise.
·
This will allow astronomers to see into distant
gas clouds to study star and planet formation.
ALMA means “soul” in Spanish and “learned” or
“knowledgeable” in Arabic. It will be interesting to see what information we
can learn from our collective efforts in our search for knowledge about our
universe. I find it a bit ironic that ALMA, in her otherworldly setting,
sitting high atop a snow-capped plateau, surrounded by volcanoes, is also
stepping up the search for alien life…somewhere…out there.
My sources: Alma Observatory, Space.com, The
Telegraph UK, www.phys.org,
www.eso.org,
, The Planetary Society, and en.wikipedia.org.
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