SCIENCE

World's largest telescope celebrates 10 years: it took the first photo of a black hole

Inside the Astronomical Park Llano de Chajnantor inAtacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the radio telescope ALMA, the world's largest, located at an altitude of about 5,000 meters in the desert at Atacama. ALMA consists of 66 high-precision antennas scattered at distances reaching 16 kilometers.

The radio telescope is celebrating its 10th anniversary, a time when it has unlocked numerous secrets of the universe, such as the first photograph of a black hole.

In April 2019, it enabled the first photo of the black hole Sgr A*

ANSA
ALMA radio telescope turns 10 years old
Inside the Astronomical Park Llano de Chajnantor in the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the radio telescope ALMA, the world's largest, located at an altitude of about 5,000 meters in the desert at Atacama.
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A radio telescope that has contributed to incredible discoveries
The radio telescope is celebrating its 10th anniversary, a time when it has unlocked numerous secrets of the universe, such as the first photograph of a black hole.
ANSA
The first photo of a black hole
In April 2019, it helped obtain the first photo of the black hole Sgr A* in the Milky Way. The radio telescope also makes it possible to study much closer objects such as planets around other stars, in particular to observe what lies beneath the thick clouds of gas and dust inside of which new planets form.
ANSA
The other contributions
ALMA's other contributions include observations in the oldest universe and the discovery of the oldest oxygen atoms produced by fusion reactions within the first stars, when the cosmos was only 500 million years old, as well as the oldest galaxies dating back more than 13 billion years.
ANSA
How will it soon change 
Coming soon, the radio telescope ALMA will be upgraded with a new 'brain,' that is, new data processing computers that will improve its performance by up to 400 times.
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