New discoveries Mysterious Activity Detected in Galaxy M83

Welcome to the ALMA website for kids!

Discover the world's largest observatory with Talma and Mathias

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Where is Chajnantor?

ALMA is the biggest astronomical observatory on Earth. It was built by countries in North America, Europe and East Asia. You might expect that ALMA is located in one of these three continents. But you would be wrong. ALMA is in South America. The best place to build your...

Who build ALMA?

Since Hans Lipperhey built his first cheap telescope in his own workshop, telescopes became larger, and also more expensive. Sometimes, rich businessmen provided the money that was needed for the construction of big telescopes. Or universities worked together to build an astronomical observatory for common use, like the Mauna...

What are millimeter waves?

If your ears are good, you can hear very high tones. Children’s ears are usually better than the ears of grown-ups. So you might be able to hear very high-pitch sounds that your father or mother cannot hear. Even then, you can’t hear everything. If the tone is too...

Why are there 66 antennas?

Have you ever noticed that owls have big eyes? That’s because they live at night. During the dark, you need really big eyes to see anything at all. The bigger your eyes, the more light they collect. Bigger eyes are more sensitive. And there’s more. If your eyes are bigger,...

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New discoveries

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The Cow: a mysterious explosion in space

On Earth, more than 350 thousand babies are born each day. If you think that is a lot, take a look at our Universe. In space, more than 100 million stars are born each day. But recently, something mysterious was born, something that astronomers have never seen before. The...

Triple star stirs up its own protoplanetary disk

If a single star has planets, the planets usually orbit the star in a single plane. Such is the case in ourown solar system: the orbits of the planets are ‘aligned’, as astronomers say. If a close binary star has planets, the situation is different. The two stars can...

ALMA carries out large census of ‘star factories’ in other galaxies

Not all families are the same. Some have many children; others just a few. In some cases, families live close together in their home town; in other towns they are less numerous, and they live further apart. You might wonder about the cause of all these differences – maybe...

Ring-like galaxy is actually a distant twin of the Milky Way

Have you ever seen a galaxy that looks like a wedding ring? This image, obtained by ALMA, shows a galaxy known as SPT 0418-47. It is extremely far away: thegalaxy’s light took 12.4 billion years to reach Earth. According to the astronomers who took theimage, it looks very much...

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