14 DAY TRIAL // This amazing new panoramic image shows some of the antennae making up the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), as it appears with the night sky as its background.
The image was captured by ESO Photo Ambassador Babbak Tafreshi from the Chajnantor Plateau, high in the Andes Mountains of Chile. This location was selected for housing ALMA due to its extremely rare precipitations and crystal-clear skies.
To the left of the photo is a reddish haze, which is in fact the renowned Carina Nebula. Though located around 7,500 light-years from our planet, the nebula is clearly visible from the Atacama Desert. This patch of space contains many of the brightest stars in the Milky Way.
When completed, ALMA will boast a network of 66 antennae of different diameters, from 7 to 12 meters (23 to 40 feet). The radio telescope will use interferometry to tie data from all observers into a coherent stream, which will be used to observe the Universe at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths.