Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the birdest of them all?

This Picture of the Week shows a very philosophical Mountain Caracara bird, checking himself out near the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope’s array of antennas on the Chajnantor Plateau, Chile. What do you reckon he’s thinking about?

Maybe, he’s looking at the 66 radio antennas that ALMA uses to probe the clouds of cool gas and dust throughout the cosmos, and thinking about the galaxies that are born in them at the farthest edges of the observable Universe. Maybe he’s thinking about the stars that ALMA watches form, and the stunning spectacles they create when they eventually die.

Maybe, he’s thinking about how those very stellar deaths are the origin of all the elements that make up his body — from the calcium in his shiny beak to the carbon-heavy keratin of his feathers, the very same ingredients in our bones and hair — and perhaps, he knows that we are all stardust.

Or, maybe he's thinking about worms.

Credit:

S. Otarola/ESO

About the Image

Id:potw2432a
Type:Photographic
Release date:5 August 2024, 06:00
Size:4849 x 7266 px

About the Object

Name:Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
Type:Unspecified : Technology : Observatory
Category:ALMA
Chile

Image Formats

Large JPEG
4.0 MB
Screensize JPEG
195.3 KB

Zoomable


Wallpapers

1024x768
163.0 KB
1280x1024
224.8 KB
1600x1200
304.7 KB
1920x1200
384.7 KB
2048x1536
454.4 KB