PHOTOS: Getting Ready for the World’s Largest Radio Telescope
In Chile’s Atacama Desert, astronomers are preparing for a new array that will stretch across 10 miles
- By Leah Binkovitz
- Smithsonian magazine, January 2013
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(ALMA (ESO / NAOJ / NRAO))
The $1.3 billion Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope—the largest ever built—will be inaugurated in March, eventually boasting 66 antennas stretching across ten miles. Chajnantor’s dry, thin atmosphere creates ideal conditions for reception of radio waves from outer space. (The antennas, above, are shown against a long-exposure image of the night sky.)
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Comments (1)
That will not be "the world's largest radio telescope". That honor already belongs to the combination of Arecibo and HALCA, which has a baseline of 21,400 km. The honor of the world's second largest radio telescope belongs to the combination of the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, which has a baseline of 12,600 km.
Posted by JohnD on December 20,2012 | 09:19 AM