Robert
Westerfield June
4, 2013
Earth
Science Core Ms.
Davies
"Giant Radio Telescope in Chile
Opens for Cosmic Business." Space.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 June
2013.
In mankind’s latest form of innovation,
the AlMA radio telescope in Chile has been constructed to look farther into the
universe than ever before. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter
Array is high in the sky at 16,000 feet in the mountains of Chile. With its
long wavelength millimeter light, it can sight new planets forming around stars
and some of the most ancient galaxies in the universe. The planning of this
unbelievable structure took 30 years and almost 10 years to construct. ALMA has
66 radio dishes that coordinate with one another to create one picture perfect
image, like a single telescope, except with ALMA the images have more depth and
are wider. ALMA’s director says, “The angular resolution is better than the
Hubble Space Telescope.” In addition, one of the unique configurations of ALMA
is the ability to see past the dust and gas that space contains and which
telescopes can’t see through. ALMA sends out visual light and the dust and gas
is than absorb allowing images of new forming planets and stars to be seen.
Scientists and other observers will see these precise images and will draw new
conclusions about the universe.
This
article is important to society purely because it can unlock new discoveries to
decoding the unique features of the universe. The ALMA telescope is without a
doubt the most advanced piece of equipment in terms of seeing into outer space.
Having the ability to look deep into space and understand the formations of
planets and stars will give us a better understanding of the history of the
universe and what will come about in the future. It is extremely important that
we continue this journey into outer space, as it will be the next colony of the
earth. For me, the reason I chose this article is because it fascinates me how
man builds these incredible structures to decode our past and future and what
you can bet on is that in 10 years time or even shorter, man will invent
something more extraordinary and more valuable.
Overall, this was an excellent article.
The article gave me an understanding of what ALMA was doing and how it was
going to do it. I also enjoyed the quotes said by numerous ALMA directors
saying that this project was hard work and an accomplishment. This showed the
reader that this was a large project and not one single man could accomplish it
alone. In addition, I liked how it said what ALMA was going to look for and
take images of the universe. However, I wish the article could have provided
evidence of this and explain if they had found any forming of planets and
stars. In general, it was quite simple and I wished it could have been more
detailed.
I read Robby's response to the article on the radio telescope in Chile. I thought he did a great job describing the actual telescope and explaining how it was constructed. It was very detailed and was beneficent for understanding the rest of the article. I also thought it was great how Robby showed how the telescope is important to society. From that I learned that the ALMA is not only a tool to scan space and the universe but it is also the most advanced piece of equipment in that category. Robby also included a lot of interesting facts which was another thing he did well. For example, I never would have known that the structure took 30 years to plan and 10 years to construct. Another thing I learned from Robby's response was that this amazing telescope has the ability to see past dust and gas that other telescopes cannot. From this it is evident that this telescope will lead to many new discoveries. Overall, Robby did an excellent job on his report, however, I would have liked to hear more on what scientists and people are going to do with this telescope. He provided great information on the actual telescope ,however, the specifics as to what they would use it to find would be very interesting. However, the article may not have provided Robby with that information.
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