ALMA test sharpens vision of new observatory
Monday, January 4, 2010 - 11:28
in Astronomy & Space
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array passed a key milestone crucial to producing the high-quality images that will be this revolutionary new observatory's trademark. A team of astronomers and engineers successfully linked three of the observatory's advanced antennas at the 16,500-foot-elevation observing site in northern Chile. Linking three antennas to work in unison for the first time allowed the ALMA team to correct errors that can arise when only two antennas are used, thus paving the way for precise, high-resolution imaging.