Milky Way stretching over ALMA

High on the Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), together with its international partners, operates the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). ALMA consists of an array of 66 antennas, which together form the most powerful telescope in the world for observing the cool Universe — molecular dust and gas. With a resolution ten times better than the Hubble Space Telescope, ALMA studies the building blocks of stars, planetary systems, galaxies, and even life itself.