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Watercolour Sky

This panorama shows a stunning wash of colour sweeping across the evening sky above the Chajnantor Plateau in northern Chile. Together, the bright Moon and crimson clouds look down upon the 66 antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The antennas work to study light from some of the coldest objects in the Universe, such as vast clouds in interstellar space or the first stars and galaxies that emerged from the so-called “dark ages” of the Universe many billions of years ago. The light produced by these stars and galaxies has been travelling through space ever since, but the expansion of the Universe has stretched it so that it is now observable at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. 

Credit:

ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)

About the Image

Id:babak-crisscrossclouds
Type:Photographic
Release date:4 February 2021, 06:00
Size:35589 x 7541 px

About the Object

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

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