This March 13 marks the culmination of the celebration of our first decade of full operations, 11 years since ALMA was inaugurated. A period that has marked not only the entire scientific community and radio astronomy worldwide, but also, of course, those who lived these first steps in the flesh. Here we relive their best memories, obtained from the...
Although the morning of that January 2012 was hot in the Chajnantor plain, Francisco Pino was frozen in front of a machine. He had only been familiarizing himself with the Front End for a couple of days when he dropped a piece of candy inside. "I couldn't even eat lunch that day," he recalls of that frightening moment. Fortunately,...
"The adventurous spirit of Juan Carlos Rojas, our Mechanical Operator, goes hand in hand with something essential: care. Precisely that was the award he received in our last ALMA Fundamental Statements Awards. "Without a doubt, it is a milestone in my career that I will always remember with a smile and a heart full of gratitude," he says proudly.With...
The arid soil of the Chajnantor plain turns white when the altiplanic winter arrives. Thunderstorms can also be part of this climatic phenomenon that causes unfavorable conditions for observation. Therefore, ALMA takes advantage of this period every year to perform maintenance on the OSF and the AOS. What is known as shutdown happens only for a few days. A...
At ALMA, internships make their own discoveries. Six young people have found a way to contribute their professional practice to the world's largest observatory. Francisco Ortiz, Valentina Rodríguez, Camilo González, Dante Zunino, Matías Ávila and Luciana Fuenzalida have contributed, either in the Atacama Desert or from Santiago. For Francisco Ortiz, this experience simply brought him to one of...
While disassembling computers as a teenager, Camila Martínez discovered a passion that brought her closer to the stars. "It was my family's technique," smiles our engineer from the ALMA Computing Department's Software team on the eve of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11. This young talent was one of the women recognized by...