Waking up at dusk

As dusk falls, the shadows of the giant dishes of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) grow longer in this timelapse footage on the Chajnantor Plateau where the array lives. Throughout the night of observations, the dishes swivel sporadically to fix their gaze on their targets. ALMA is the most powerful astronomical observatory of its kind, helping astronomers to study the building blocks of stars, galaxies, planetary systems and life itself. To minimise noise generated by the thermal emission of the receivers themselves, the dishes are cooled to a temperature of -269 degrees Celsius, just a few degrees above absolute zero.