Science with ALMA
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) will be the forefront instrument for studying the cool universe - the relic radiation of the Big Bang, and the molecular gas and dust that constitute the very building blocks of stars, planetary systems, galaxies and life itself. This material typically resides at temperatures of 3-100 K, resulting in spectral energy distributions peaking at submillimeter through to far-infrared wavelengths.
Most of the energy in the Universe lies in two thermal components - the cosmic background and the far infrared background - whose Earth-accessible spectrum lies within the ALMA frequency coverage. Indeed, the peak of the spectral energy distribution for dusty objects in the distant universe becomes redshifted entirely to submillimeter wavelengths. While a number of current and future telescopes will operate at submillimeter wavelengths in order to exploit the wealth of information available in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum, none will have the combination of sensitivity, resolution and frequency coverage of ALMA.
This section of the ESO ALMA Website provides further information about the science that can be done with ALMA:- Science goals and science cases of the ALMA Project.
- ALMA Design Reference Science Plan (DRSP). The DRSP provides a prototype suite of high-priority ALMA projects that could be carried out in ~3-4 years of full ALMA operations. The DRSP serves as a quantitative reference for developing the science operations plan, for performing imaging simulations, for software design and for other applications within the ALMA project.
- ALMA Meetings, Conferences and Symposia.
Scientific papers, reports and presentations related to ALMA science goals and capabilities, as well as technical documents are available in the Publications section.
Additionally, a podcast entitled Radio Astronomy and the ALMA Telescope (starring Robert Laing) is available.