Government authorities and businessmen visit the ALMA radio observatory
28 October, 2010 / Read time: 2 minutes
ALMA received a visit from high ranking executives from the Chilean business sector. The visit was organized by ALMA and the Alta Direccion (High Direction) Network (a business organism stemming from the Universidad de Desarollo), and was marked by the celebration of an informative seminar on the management of global scientific centers in Chile and their relevance to the local public and business sectors.
The organization of this seminar and visit responds to the great interest from numerous sectors of national planning for the consolidation of Chile as an astronomical hub for world class projects. There was an exchange of information between scientists, businessmen and government representatives about the importance that the global scientific community has obtained through the achievements of highly complex research projects. These projects unite sceintific efforts with the administrative organization of several countries in an investment of billions of dollars.
The ALMA radio observatory is an example of a global scientific undertaking, consisting of the largest observatory ever built, with 66 radio-telescopes that permit us to capture radio-electic waves beyond the visible light field so as to explore the origins of the universe for the first time with the best sensitivity and image resolution ever obtained.
The attendees of this seminar visited the ALMA radio obseervatory facilities located in the area near San Pedro de Atacama, in the second region. During the visit they witnessed a detailed demonstration of the equipment and the radio observatory’s advanced technology.
ALMA will provide an unprecedented combination of image sensitivity, resolution and capacity for the shortest radio wavelegths, for which the earth’s atmosphere is transparent. This project will become a new window to the cosmic origins, investigating the first stars and galaxies, and obtaining direct images of the formation of the planets.