Alma telescope begins study of cosmic dawn

[hue]

Source: BBC News

One of the 21st Century's grand scientific undertakings has begun its quest to view the "Cosmic Dawn".

The Atacama large milllimetre/submillimetre array (Alma) in Chile is the largest, most complex telescope ever built.

Alma's purpose is to study processes occurring a few hundred million years after the formation of the Universe when the first stars began to shine.

Its work should help explain why the cosmos looks the way it does today.

One of Alma's scientific operations astronomers, Dr Diego Garcia, said that the effective switching on of the giant telescope ushered in a "new golden age of astronomy".

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15107254

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our understanding of the universe has just begun...
how frustrating yet predictable that Repubs will do anything to prevent, suppress, divert any funding and support for real science!!!

[bananas]

1. Podcast by Tania Burchell for 365 Days of Astronomy

http://365daysofastronomy.org/2011/10/03/october-3rd-alma-opens-her-eyes/

October 3rd: ALMA Opens Her Eyes

Description: The world’s most complex, ground-based astronomy observatory is under construction within a fortress of extinct volcanoes high in the remote Chilean Altiplano. Although she is not yet complete, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has already begun observing the invisible Universe. What is she seeing? What makes her so complex? And who is building her?

Bio: Tania Burchell is the Public Information Officer for ALMA in North America, working out of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Virginia. Her astronomy career spanned the wavelengths and her communications career spanned the Atlantic, landing her on stage, radio and television in the US and UK. She tweets as RadioAstroGal and blogs when she can at radioastrogal.wordpress.com.

Sponsors: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Steve Nerlich from Cheap Astronomy: …helping you conserve more than just angular momentum.

This episode of “365 Days Of Astronomy” has also been brought to you by lifeboat.com.

Transcript:

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[midnight]

3. Thanks for the link... I'm listening to this right now... very interesting...

[WhiteTara]

2. I'm such a crazy fool

When I saw the word Alma which means soul, I thought "scientists are really romantics also"...it's short for a bunch of long words :rofl: