ALMA - World's Largest Telescope Starts Operations In Chile

Sky watchers rejoice - ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre Array) the world's largest telescope has began operations in the Chilean deserts. Do not confuse this with the SKA aka the Square Kilometer Array - which is currently under construction. ALMA has the official badge of being the most powerful telescope on the Earth at present. Chile has been working on this project in association with USA (which has spent $500 million on the project) for the past 30 years to realise the ALMA project. The telescope began operations a few hours ago.

This telescope comprises of 66 antennas working in sync to look deep into the dark skies. Nearly 50% of the light in the sky is millimeter-wavelength and lies between the radio and infrared spectrum. ALMA has been designed to capture this light and scientists and researchers look forward to amazing discoveries. All the 66 dishes move in perfect sync with each other to expand the overall observation area of the telescope. ALMA's angular resolution is almost equal to that of the Hubble telescope. We'll surely follow up updates on this telescope.

Another interesting project to follow is the SKA - which has been designed to be 50x more sensitive than ALMA. Stay tuned for updates!