Mitteilung
ALMA streckt die Arme aus
Bislang längste ALMA-Basislinie erreicht
24. September 2014
Das Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) hat erfolgreich eine Antenne in der bisher am weitesten ausgedehnten Konfiguration der Anlage getestet, was zur bislang längsten Basislinie von ALMA geführt hat. Dieser Fortschritt wurde möglich, als die erste von ALMAs drei erweiterten Armen das erste Mal erfolgreich hochgefahren wurde, was wiederum die Möglichkeiten von ALMA deutlich verbessert. Mit längeren Basislinien steigt die Fähigkeit eines Radioteleskops, feine Details sichtbar machen zu können, was es Astronomen erlaubt weitaus mehr Informationen über im Universum entdeckte Objekte zu erhalten.
Lore, einer von ALMAs zwei maßgeschneiderten Antennentransportern, ist zu seiner ersten Reise entlang des Pampa la Bola-Arm angetreten und hat zum ersten Mal eine Antenne zu einer Position in sieben Kilometern Entfernung zum nächsten Nachbarn umgesiedelt. Dies markiert eine wichtige neue technische Errungenschaft in der Atacamawüste in Chile in einer Höhe von 5000 Metern über dem Meeresspiegel. Die neue Basislinie ist mehr als viermal länger als die bisher für die wissenschaftliche ALMA-Gemeinschaft verfügbare. Tests mit noch längeren Basislinien werden noch durchgeführt.
Catherine Vlahakis, Lead Program Scientist der ALMA Long Baseline Campaign, erläutert: „Die erfolgreiche Erstinbetriebnahme einer Antenne über derart große Entfernungen markiert einen wichtigen technischen Schritt zur Verbesserung von ALMAs Fähigkeiten Objekte im Universum in feineren Details beobachten zu können.“
Ed Fomalont, leitender Wissenschaftler der ALMA Long Baseline-Kampagne, erklärt: „Die Kombination der Signale von den Antennen führt zu einem Muster, das man als Interferenzmuster bezeichnet. Das Interferenzmuster, das mit der Antenne in sieben Kilometern Entfernung gemessen wurde, war so klar und ausgeprägt wie notwendig, um Bilder hoher Qualität zu erhalten, wenn zusätzliche Antennen entlang dieser langen Basislinien bewegt werden.“
Catherine Vlahakis ergänzt: „Dieser erste Schritt ist ein Prozess für die Bewegung mehrerer Antennen hinaus zu solch großen Entfernungen. Wenn alle weiteren Antennen ebenfalls platziert sind, werden wir in der Lage sein, Testbeobachtungen von astronomischen Objekten mit höherer Winkelauflösung zu machen und dadurch mehr Details erkennen zu können als es bisher mit ALMA möglich war.“
Beobachtungen, die weitere ausgedehnte Konfigurationen der Anlage testen, werden in den nächsten zwei Monaten durchgeführt werden. Wenn alles wie geplant verläuft wird der Prozess die Astronomen mit dem Wissen versorgen, um die Beobachtungen mit langen Basislinien der Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft zugänglich zu machen.
Kontaktinformationen
Lars Lindberg Christensen
Leiter ESO ePOD
Garching bei München
Tel: +49 89 3200 6761
Mobil: +49 173 3872 621
E-Mail: lars@eso.org
Über die Mitteilung
ID: | ann14069 |
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