Snow-covered ALMA

This panorama shows the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA), composed initially of 66 high precision antennas located on the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 metres altitude in northern Chile. The plateau is seen to be covered with snow in a cool, icy setting.

ALMA observes light emitted by cool-temperature objects in space, which permits us to unravel profound mysteries about the formation of planets and the appearance of complex molecules, including organic molecules.