As the BBC report, and see here also, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have released the first image obtained by their new telescope, the Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) – even though the array isn’t expected to be completed until 2013. It’s the focus of the latest ESOcast 36 – ALMA opens its eyes.
And here’s that image, of the colliding spiral Antennae Galaxies (also known as NGC 4038 and 4039). [Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)]
A side-by-side comparison with a Very Large Telescope (VLT) image of the Antennae Galaxies. [Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: ESO/Alberto Milani.]
And a composite of ALMA and Hubble observations of the Antennae Galaxies. [Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope]
Finally, from the people who brought us the wondrous sky above the VLT, here’s some, equally wondrous, time-lapse footage of the Chilean night sky above ALMA. [Video credit: Footage – ESO/José Francisco Salgado and ESO (www.eso.org) (www.josefrancisco.org). Music – “It’s Inside Me, and it’s Inside It” by Cloudkicker (www.cloudkicker.bandcamp.com). Editing – Nicolás Bustos (www.facebook.com/nicolasbustos)]
