ALMA under the stars

The ALMA array consists of 66 parabolic radio antennas located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The array helps astronomers study some of the coldest objects in the universe. ALMA is located in a very good location for astronomical observations. The Chajnantor plateau is home to some of the darkest skies in the world, far from any light pollution and at an elevation of 5000meters. The individual antennas can be moved all across the desert from distances ranging from 150 metres to 16 kilometres. The telescope also has extremely high sensitivity due to the large number of individual antennas.