New discoveries ALMA discovers moons in the making

Welcome to the ALMA website for kids!

Discover the world's largest observatory with Talma and Mathias

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When were the first galaxies born?

The Earth is a planet, orbiting the Sun. The Sun is a star – a giant ball of hot gas, emitting light and heat. The Sun is one of the few hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. And the Milky Way is one of the hundred billion or...

How do solar explosions work?

The Sun is a star. Not many people know that. It’s a star like all the other stars in the night sky. Or, put differently: all the stars in the night sky are suns like our own. So why are the stars tiny pinpricks of light, while the Sun is...

How are ALMA images created?

ALMA measures millimeter waves from the sky. These millimeter waves are emitted by cold dust clouds in the Universe. The clouds are so cold that they don’t produce visible light. They’re completely dark. With a normal telescope, you can’t see them. But ALMA can detect their invisible radiation. But...

How are the antennas moved around?

The huge array of 66 ALMA antennas is located at the Chajnantor Plateau in the north of Chile, at 5,000 meters altitude. The site is known as the AOS – the Array Operations Site. Because of the high altitude, the air at the AOS is very thin. There’s not much...

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New discoveries

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ALMA sees galaxy collision in early universe

Thirteen billion years ago, two small galaxies crashed into each other. The ALMA observatory has now witnessed this collision. Never before have astronomers seen a galaxy smashup so early in the history of the universe. The cosmic traffic accident happened when the universe was less than one billion years...

Massive binary stars are born as real twins

All people look different from each other. Except identical twins. They have the same eyes, the same nose, the same mouth and the same hair. Very often, they even wear the same clothes. When two people are so much alike, you can be sure they were born as twins....

ALMA finds planet-on-the-move in outer part of planet-forming disk

ALMA has discovered a new planet, orbiting a distant star. But not by actually seeing it – the planet is too small to detect from Earth. Instead, ALMA saw the planet’s tracks in the dusty disk that whirls around the star. It’s like finding the Invisible Man through his...

ALMA uncovers a hidden black hole

Black holes are the most mysterious objects in the Universe. Their gravity is dangerously strong. They suck in everything that comes too close. Moreover, they don’t emit any light. As a result, they’re completely invisible. Still, there are ways to detect black holes. That’s because they exert a tell-tale...

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