Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21620802p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #216, #208.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.863
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an international millimeter/submillimeter interferometer under construction in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of Japan by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). ALMA is situated on a high-altitude site at 5000m elevation which provides excellent atmospheric transmission over most of the wavelength range of 0.3 to 3 mm. At the shortest planned wavelength and most extended configuration, the angular resolution of ALMA will be 5 milliarcseconds. This will give us the ability to, for example, image the gas kinematics in protostars and in protoplanetary disks around young Sun-like stars at a distance of 150 pc, or to image the redshifted dust continuum emission from evolving galaxies at epochs of formation as early as z = 10.
At present, there are about 30 scientists from all over the world working at the Joint ALMA Observatory in Santiago, all of whom are assisting with antenna testing and array commissioning activities, as well as carrying out their own research programs. A number of antennas have been delivered and assembled at the Operations Support Facility (OSF) at 3000m near San Pedro de Atacama, and are currently undergoing extensive testing. The first 3 antennas were delivered to the Array Operations Site (AOS) at the end of 2009, and Commissioning and Science Verification began on Jan 22, 2010, following the successful demonstration of phase closure and preliminary observing modes. The call for proposals for Early Science observations is planned to go out within a year, and Early Science observations will begin in 2011.
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