Drone Over ALMA Radio Telescope

22 August, 2016 / Read time: 1 minute

Enjoy this extended tour around the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) via footage taken by a very hardy little drone.

We can see aerial images of the ALMA Array Operations Site (AOS), located at an altitude of 5000 meters on the Chajnantor Plateau. This is where are located the 66 antennas that can function as a single, highly sensitive radio telescope . Through interferometry, we combine signals from each one to emulate a giant antenna up to 16 km in diameter.

Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF