14 DAY TRIAL // The antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope, are seen in this amazing image against a breathtaking night sky, on the Chajnantor Plateau, in Chile.
ALMA is currently being built by an international collaboration of organizations, at an altitude of 5,000 meters (16.404 feet) in the Chilean Andes. This location was selected precisely because it has some of the clearest skies in the world, and the new image demonstrates this in abundance.
When completed, the observatory will have 66 of these antennas, all working together to capture extremely detailed images of the Universe. At this point, only a few of them are installed at the site.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) represents Europe in the project. The North American segment of the collaboration is represented by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), while the East Asian segment by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).