ALMA Telescope [UPSC Science & Technology]

The Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array, a radio telescope Located in Chile is going to get a new brain. Know more about ALMA Telescope for the Science & Technology section of IAS exam.

Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array (ALMA)

The ALMA is the largest ground-based telescope in existence right now. Located in the Atacama desert the telescope has the potential to study space objects at wavelengths of millimetres and sub-millimetre that is ranging from wavelength of 0.32 to 3.6 millimetres. The electromagnetic radiations at such wavelengths are received from celestial bodies that are only just a few degrees above absolute zero. This includes some of the earliest and the most distant galaxies of the universe. Such data is used by astronomers to study the gas & dust clouds in the universe which are very obscure and emit light only in these wavelengths. These gas & dust clouds are the regions where the stars and the planets are born.

This telescope is operated under a partnership with a consortium of countries including 16 countries in Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the country where it is placed i.e. Chile. The telescope was inaugurated in the year 2013 however it has been functional since 2011 in the form of a partial array i.e a partially constructed telescope.

One very important thing to note about this telescope is that the images produced from it are 10 times sharper than the images that were being produced by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Major Discoveries by the ALMA:

1. Its observations and pictures of the Protoplanetary disc HL Tuari, which was only about 1 million years old when pictured, helped us find that planet formation can take place in even very young protoplanetary discs.
2. It helped in getting the pictures of the “Einstein Ring” Phenomena at a level of resolution which had not yet been achieved by any other telescope.
3. The telescope helped in the detection of complex organic substances, essential for the creation of Carbon Based life forms in faraway protoplanetary discs, thus confirming that our Solar System is not the only place that had such conditions.

Why is it located in the Atacama Desert?

The water vapour that is present in the air around us has the potential to absorb the signals from space. So if the telescopes are located in places which have high amounts of moisture then the signals can be lost and the images that are created they might not be very exhaustive.  Therefore it is essential that any such telescopes, for the sake of precision, must be built on high sites that are also very dry.  The Atacama desert is one of the driest places on the earth and that is why a high location in the desert was a perfect place for the installation of the telescope to prevent any signal interference.

The “New Brain” of ALMA?

The ALMA telescope has 66 high Precision Antennae. Each antenna has a receiver that receives various millimetre and sub-millimetre signals from space. These signals are collated by an instrument known as a correlator, which is considered the “Brain of ALMA”.  This analogy is used because the same thing happens in our bodies. Our eyes just receive the signals that our brains interpret and help us identify what exactly are we observing. 

The correlator is actually a supercomputer. ALMA’s brain is one of the fastest supercomputers in the world. However, over the next few years, we want the images to be more precise and that is why after consultation with all the members involved in the project it has been decided that the supercomputer being used at Alma will be replaced to increase the overall observing speed. For this upgradation, various Agencies including the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre of the National Research Council of Canada, the United States’ National Science Foundation, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an industry partner from Canada, will all work together.

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