High-performance ALMA telescope array is put into use this fall

Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, August 5th The Japan National Astronomical Observatory issued a communique on the 4th that the erection of 16 parabolic antennas necessary for the initial application of the “ALMA” large-scale radio telescope array that is currently under construction in South America and Chile has already been completed and is scheduled to be put into use this autumn. .

The full name of "ALMA" is "Atacama's Large Millimeter Wave/Submillimeter Wave Array". Its construction project began in 2002. It is an international project mainly based in Japan and participated by some countries in East Asia, Europe and North America. . The antenna array is constructed in the Atacama Desert, 5000 meters above sea level in northern Chile. The entire antenna array will eventually have a total of 66 parabolic antennas.

After completion, 66 parabolic antennas will work as a huge radio telescope. By then, “ALMA” will have a resolution of 0.01 arc seconds, equivalent to seeing a penny coin more than 500 kilometers away. Bo "Space Telescope 10 times.

"ALMA" will be mainly used to obtain data on the evolution of galaxies and planets, to find new celestial bodies and to explore whether there are substances in the universe that can evolve into life.