Celebrating 12 years of ALMA: A journey to the stars
High in the Atacama Desert, under one of the clearest skies in the world, ALMA began its mission 12 years ago to explore the far reaches of the universe. Since then, this ambitious scientific project has transformed our understanding of the cosmos, uncovering secrets ranging from the first moments...
Breaking records: how we surpassed 4,000 hours of observations
To know our cosmic origins, we must observe as many hours as possible of the research selected for each cycle. That's why we are so pleased to have surpassed 4,000 hours during this Cycle 10. The highest number ever observed since we began operations. Our previous...
Bill Dent says goodbye to ALMA: “I came for 3 years and stayed for 15”
It was early morning in the control room at OSF. Bill Dent was alone with an operator and typing away when the information on his screen began to slow to a complete stop. Unable to communicate with the antennas, they called the engineers to no success....
With energy and enthusiasm we celebrated these National Holidays together
SCO and OSF dressed in red, white and blue this September to share with our colleagues the celebrations of the chilean national holidays. In Santiago we enjoyed a different kind of lunch, with a delicious asado and typical desserts such as motes con huesillos. At OSF,...
Putting out the cigarette: our No-Smoking Program
Thinking that health is a priority for everyone, but sometimes external help is needed, our Safety department led an no-smoking campaign for all ALMA staff and our contractors who wanted to quit smoking. The incentive? If they succeeded in overcoming three months of abstinence, they could...
The Power Group, the energy of ALMA
From turning on the light in a room and running a coffee maker to maintaining the antennas and correlator operations at OSF and AOS.... for everything to work as usual there has to be a team behind it working day and night: that's the Power Group....
“Doctor, we’re ready to operate”: WSU’s first PDR
The Advanced Technology ALMA Correlator (ATAC), the centerpiece of WSU's new era, has just passed its Preliminary Design Review (PDR). This means that the observatory's new brain, which will be able to analyze more data from the antenna receivers, is going from strength to strength for...