alma – the atacama large millimeter array
DESCRIPTION
ALMA – The Atacama Large Millimeter Array. Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI. Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI and Computer graphics by ESO. ALMA will be a single telescope composed of up to 64 high precision 12-m antennas, operating between 31 to 950 GHz (0.3-9.6 mm wavelength). - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Experimental Cosmology Group Oxford Astrophysics
ALMA – The Atacama Large Millimeter Array
ALMA will be a single telescope composed of up to 64 high precision 12-m antennas, operating between 31 to 950 GHz (0.3-9.6 mm wavelength).
Combining several antennas in an interferometer allows ALMA to achieve resolutions as fine as 0.004 arc seconds, a factor of 10 better than the Hubble Space Telescope.
To avoid absorption due to the atmosphere, ALMA will be built at 5000m above sea level in the Atacama desert, one of the highest and driest astronomical sites.
At the heart of the ALMA receivers are several superconducting tunnel junction mixers, operated at 4 K, covering ALMA’s frequency range in 10 bands.
ALMA will give unprecedented sensitivity and resolution for observations of (among other things) cold gas kinematics in star forming regions, dust emission at high redshifts and molecules throughout the universe.
Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI
Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI and Computer graphics by ESO