ALMA will already surpass the capabilities of all existing telescopes

[HysteryDiagnosis]

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/06/alma-casts-a-cold-eye-on-the-s.html


The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, is being constructed at an altitude of 5000 metres on the Atacama desert's Chajnantor plateau, one of the driest places on the planet. This lack of moisture, combined with the thin atmosphere at high altitude, offers ideal conditions for observing the cosmos at the still mysterious millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths which are emitted by cooler objects.

The first 16 antennas should be in place this month, and scientific observations are scheduled to begin at the end of September. When it is completed in 2013, ALMA will have fifty 12-metre antennas in its main array, plus an additional array of twelve 7-metre and four 12-metre antennas. This will allow it to produce images of extended objects in the night sky such as giant cosmic clouds of gas and dust. All the dishes will work together to observe the sky as one.

"Even using just the first 16 of its 66 antennas, ALMA will already surpass the capabilities of all existing telescopes of its kind, and will provide new insights into star formation as well as the origins of galaxies and planets," says Paola Andreani, manager of the European ALMA Regional Centre at the European Southern Observatory.

[Lionel Mandrake]

1. You garbled the meaning by leaving out "of its kind".

"ALMA will already surpass the capabilities of all existing telescopes of its kind",
i.e., Millimeter/submillimeter-wave telescopes. Not all telescopes!

[Judi Lynn]

2. This is wonderful news. Thank you, so much. n/t