ALMA: Seeing the Universe in a Whole New Light

The Atacama Desert in Chile is now home to the largest ground-based radio telescope in the world. The telescope, called the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), is made up of 66 antennas, at 16,500 feet. From its perch in the high desert, ALMA sits above 40 percent of the earth's atmosphere and virtually all the world's water vapor. ALMA is designed to peer into a slice of the electromagnetic spectrum at millimeter wavelengths - light that is closer to a radio wave than to the optical light that is seen by the human eye. The telescope could detect hidden gases inside galaxies that might hold the key to star and planetary formation.

Transcript

00:00:00 ♫MUSIC♫ MILES O'BRIEN: At first glance this bone dry landscape seems inhospitable. But for astronomers it's prime real estate that's now home to the largest ground based telescope in the world. It's called ALMA. And with support from the National Science Foundation, it's allowing them to see the universe like never before. KARTIK SHETH: ALMA is the Atacama Large Millimeter/ Submillimeter Array, and it will be a telescope made of about 66 antennas at 16,500 feet in the deserts of

00:00:38 Atacama in Chile. MILES O'BRIEN: Kartik Sheth is with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia. He's part of a team of astronomers putting this new array to work. KARTIK SHETH: Together these telescopes, as a single telescope, that can be as large as 10 miles in diameter. And it will be ten to a hundred times more powerful than any existing telescope that we have. MILES O'BRIEN: From its perch in the high desert, ALMA sits above 40% of the earth's atmosphere, and virtually all

00:01:08 the world's water vapor. KARTIK SHETH: Which allows us to essentially have a window that is transparent to outer space. MILES O'BRIEN: ALMA is designed to peer into a slice of the electromagnetic spectrum at millimeter wavelengths, light that is closer to a radio wave than to optical light our eyes can see. KARTIK SHETH: ALMA has the ability to map the gas and dust in galaxies with the same power, the same sensitivity and resolution from today all the way out to the edge

00:01:37 of the universe. MILES O'BRIEN: And that's critical for Sheth who also studies the evolution of galaxies. ALMA can look where optical telescopes can't. KARTIK SHETH: There are lots of stars that are forming around the black hole that is at the center of this galaxy. We are going to zoom in to this central ring and this is what ALMA can see where the dust is located and we're able to now understand how much gas there must be, how much fuel there is for the black hole.

00:02:03 MILES O'BRIEN: Sheth says ALMA can detect hidden gases inside galaxies that can hold the key to star and planetary formation. It might even detect the building blocks of life. KARTIK SHETH: What really excites me about my work is the possibility of discovering new things, new star systems, new galaxies. MILES O'BRIEN: Unlocking the secrets of the universe by seeing it in a different light. For Science Nation, I'm Miles O'Brien.