Atacama Large Millimeter Array
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The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is an international astronomy project that consists of a system of radio telescopes in an array formation. The telescopes are capable of detecting sub-millimeter and millimeter wavelengths. ALMA is an equal partnership between Europe and North America, in cooperation with Chile. It is the largest and most expensive ground-based astronomical project currently under construction.
The project is funded in North America by the National Science Foundation (United States) in cooperation with the National Research Council (Canada); and in Europe by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Spain.
General information
ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), and on behalf of Europe by ESO.
The project includes:
- No less than 64 x 12 meter antennas located at an elevation of 5,000 m in Llano de Chajnantor, Chile.
- Imaging instrument in all atmospheric windows between 10 mm and 350 micrometres
- Array configurations from approximately 150 meters to 10 km
- Spatial resolution of 10 milliarcseconds, 10 times better than the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Hubble Space Telescope
- The ability to image sources arcminutes to degrees across at one arcsecond resolution
- Velocity resolution under 50 m/s
- Faster and more flexible imaging instrument than the VLA
- Largest and most sensitive instrument in the world at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths
- Point source detection sensitivity 20 times better than the VLA
Related topics
- List of observatories
- James Clerk Maxwell Telescope The most sensitive existing sub-millimeter telescope
- Plateau de Bure Interferometer, one of the most successful existing millimeter-wave arrays, which is operated by IRAM.
External links
- official NRAO ALMA site (http://www.alma.nrao.edu)
- official UK site (http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~jsr/alma/)
- official ESO site (http://www.eso.org/projects/alma/)de:Atacama Large Millimeter Array