ALMA Performs Its First Very Long Baseline Observations

ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, has successfully combined its immense collecting area and sensitivity with that of APEX (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment) to create a new, single instrument through a process known as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).

This first successful observation using VLBI with ALMA used a baseline of 2.1 km, and was an essential proof-of-concept test for the planned Event Horizon Telescope, which eventually will include a global network of millimetre-wavelength telescopes.