The ALMA project

ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, will be a single research instrument composed of up to 80 high-precision antennas, located on the Chajnantor plain of the Chilean Andes in the District of San Pedro de Atacama, 5000 m above sea level.

ALMA will enable transformational research into the physics of the cold Universe, regions that are optically dark but shine brightly in the millimetre portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Providing astronomers a new window on celestial origins, ALMA will probe the first stars and galaxies, and directly image the formation of planets.

ALMA will operate at wavelengths of 0.3 to 9.6 millimetres, where the Earth's atmosphere above a high, dry site is largely transparent, and will provide astronomers unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. The 12-m antennas will have reconfigurable baselines ranging from 15 m to 18 km. Resolutions as fine as 0.005" will be achieved at the highest frequencies, a factor of ten better than the Hubble Space Telescope.

ALMA will be a complete astronomical imaging and spectroscopic instrument for the millimetre/submillimetre, providing scientists with capabilities and wavelength coverage that complement those of other research facilities of its era, such as the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA), the Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT), and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).