An
antenna transporter moves a huge 100-ton antenna to a pad on the Chajnantor plateau in
Chile's Atacama desert.
The instrument represents one
of 66 state-of-the-art antennas being built by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) to
study light from some of the coldest objects in the universe. When completed, the Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) will examine light with wavelengths
around a millimeter, between infrared light and radio waves. Such wavelengths
shine from cold interstellar clouds at temperatures just a few tens of degrees
above absolute zero, where new stars are born.
ALMA's
main instrument array will contain 50 antennas that can act as a single
interferometer telescope, each roughly 39 feet (12 meters). A smaller array of antennas will
combine with the main array for a total of 66 high-precision antennas. Construction
started in 2003 and is slated to end by 2012, with this antenna transporter (nicknamed "Lore") and its sibling
bearing the brunt of the moving work.
— ESO and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: Pascal
Martinez (ESO)
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