Highest telescope reveals wonders of the Universe
Highest telescope reveals wonders of the Universe
Steve Connor
Thursday 11 October 2012
A stunning image of a spiral shell of cosmic dust and gas around a red giant star was captured by astronomers using the world's highest terrestrial telescope.
The ALMA telescope is currently being completed on the remote Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes.
Located 5,100 metres above sea level, it has an array of 66 antennas each the size of a two-storey suburban house and can detect radiation in the millimetre-submillimetre wavelength range, between infrared and radio waves, which means that it can see structures that are invisible to the Hubble telescope.
Until this image was captured, astronomers had no idea that this red giant star, R Sculptoris, possessed a spiral-shaped halo of material, which indicates the presence of an unseen companion star.
More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/highest-telescope-reveals-wonders-of-the-universe-8206039.html
Great images in google images:
https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSND_enUS411US412&q=Chajnantor&biw=1195&bih=620&sei=2Ch2UJuHE4nu0gGtpYCQDA&tbm=isch
= new reply since forum marked as read
