Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)
When built, by 2010, this will be the largest and most sensitive telescope
in the world at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. A joint United
States-European project, ALMA will consist of at least sixty-four 12-meter
dish antennas at an altitude of 5,000 m near Cerro Chajnantor in northern
Chile. The array will be configurable with baselines up to 10 km, be capable
of imaging in all atmospheric windows between 10 mm and 350 microns, and
have 10 times the resolution of the Very Large Array
(VLA) and the Hubble Space Telescope. The U.S.
side of the project is run by the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), while the European side is a collaboration
between the European Southern Observatory, the
French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft,
the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy and Nederlandse Onderzoekschool
Voor Astronomie, and the United Kingdom Particle Physics and Astronomy Research
Council.
In June 2002, work began to assemble the first of the ALMA prototype antennas
at the ALMA Test Facility located on the VLA site in New Mexico. Among ALMA's
numerous uses will be the observation of star-forming regions, protostars,
and protoplanetary disks. ALMA will
also play an important role in the search for extrasolar
planets through accurate astrometry, and
possibly even the direct detection of planets and their atmospheres.
External site
ALMA homepage (NRAO)
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• OBSERVATORIES
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