The world's largest radio telescope
March 13 marked the inauguration of the world's most powerful observatory - a field of antennas high in Chile's Atacama desert that make up the ALMA telescope.
ALMA, the world's largest radio telescope, has been functioning at limited capacity since 2011. But now 50 of the antennas, which can be arranged over a 10-kilometre radius to maximise their efficiency, will finally be working together.
The vast parabolic antennas of the ALMA project will work together as a single giant telescope.
They will allow scientists to study the universe, molecular gas, the dust of stars, galaxies and planetary systems.
ALMA will eventually have 66 antennas, but officials aren't sure when the whole project will be complete.
The observatory will allow astronomers to study wavelengths invisible to the human eye.
The antennas at ALMA stand some 5,000 meters above sea level.
The receivers are used to detect radiation from space, which is converted into an electrical signal to make it measurable so that it can be studied.
Workers prepare one of the structures the day before the official inauguration.
A parabolic antenna dish points to the sky.
A man looks out across the desert at the antennas.
They stand clustered together in the barren landscape.
A special vehicle prepares to load an antenna.
A worker is reflected on the surface of a machine that works together with the antennas at the observatory.
