ALMA Observatory📡

⚠️Mark your calendars! The equinox is coming on March 20th at 2:46PM UTC 🍂Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere 🌸Spring in the Northern Hemisphere 📷: Alex Pérez

@INHI_UV2B wwwwwww 🤭

なんかすごくゆるい顔に見える…w

👀Not Otto transporting a @Minecraft mob. GG's! 🦾To test our colossal transporters, we used a dummy that resembles the size and weight of an ALMA antena

Let's work together! 📡 Open positions in Chile for: ✅ Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Coordinator ✅ HR Intern 2026 Applications at the link: almaobservatory.org/en/local-inter…

@ALMA_Japan @TheNRAO @prcnaoj_en 🥰

@almaobs @TheNRAO @prcnaoj_en Congratulations!! We did it last year.

🎉We're celebrating our 13th anniversary since opening! 🎂 It took us 10 years to build, and we have so many stories to tell. This photo is one of our most cherished memories: when we were installing the antena pads. 📷Carlos Padilla

📡"Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas Has Another Surprise: It’s Full of Alcohol" by @WIRED wired.com/story/interste…

📡We are on @SPACEdotcom "Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is 'bursting with methanol,' new study finds" space.com/astronomy/come…

@dslsynth @TheNRAO @prcnaoj_en @ALMA_Japan almaobservatory.org/en/videos/scen…

@almaobs @TheNRAO @prcnaoj_en @ALMA_Japan Remember there was a video about the construction of ALMA on youtube. Seems that it was subsequently removed. Hope to see new video material from ALMA including documentation of its construction.

📡Greater bandwidth, a new perspective on the universe. The new GPU spectrometer advances to the next phase. ✅By increasing bandwidth and optimizing its capabilities, it will strengthen the ALMA observatory for conducting large-scale spectral studies almaobservatory.org/en/announcemen…

✨ Excellent work, galactic interns!📡 We want to recognize and thank all the interns who recently completed their professional experience at ALMA. 🙌🏻We wish you all the best in your next steps!

📡We detected an extraordinarily high amount of alcohol in comet 3I/ATLAS☄️ An interstellar comet rich in methanol offers a glimpse into planet formation beyond the Solar System almaobservatory.org/en/audiences/a… 📷Artist's impression @NSF /AUI/NSF @TheNRAO /M. Weiss

📡"Largest ALMA Image Ever Spans 650 Light-Years, Revealing the Chaotic Heart of the Milky Way" by @DiscoverMag discovermagazine.com/largest-alma-i…

📡"Largest ALMA Image Ever Reveals Hidden Chemistry at the Heart of the Milky Way" by @SciTechDaily1 scitechdaily.com/largest-alma-i…

❄️After the snowstorm, a complete observatory emerges on the Chajnantor Plateau, Chile.📡 📷: @_ansack ALMA Photo-ambassador

Astronomers have produced the largest and most detailed image ever obtained with the @almaobs of the central region of the Milky Way, revealing the complex structure and chemistry of the cold molecular gas that surrounds the galaxy’s core. The observations are part of the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey (ACES), an international effort in which the @ice_csic participates. The study focuses on the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), a region more than 650 light-years across that contains dense clouds of gas and dust orbiting near the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. This area represents one of the most extreme environments in the Milky Way and is crucial for understanding how stars form under intense conditions. The new mosaic image provides an unprecedented view of the raw material from which stars are born. It traces cold molecular gas across the entire CMZ, revealing networks of filaments and dense clumps that channel matter into regions where gravity can trigger the formation of new stars. Because the Galactic center is relatively close compared with other galactic nuclei, it offers a unique laboratory where astronomers can study these processes in extraordinary detail. Beyond mapping the structure of the gas, the survey also explores its chemical composition. Using ALMA’s sensitivity, researchers detected dozens of different molecules within the clouds, ranging from relatively simple species such as silicon monoxide to more complex organic molecules including methanol, acetone, and ethanol. Studying this chemical diversity helps scientists understand how molecular clouds evolve and how the ingredients for star formation and potentially prebiotic chemistry arise in dense galactic environments. The CMZ hosts some of the most massive and short-lived stars in the Milky Way, many of which end their lives in powerful supernova or even hypernova explosions. These violent events inject energy and heavy elements back into the surrounding gas, influencing future generations of stars. By mapping the region at such high resolution and over such a large area, the ACES survey provides a new framework for investigating how star formation proceeds in environments shaped by strong gravity, turbulence, and feedback from massive stars. Ultimately, the dataset opens the door to many new discoveries about the dynamics, chemistry, and evolution of the Milky Way’s center. By revealing the full complexity of the cold gas in this region, astronomers hope to refine current theories of star formation and better understand how galaxies behave in their most extreme internal environments. 👉 share.google/jLbrT5XW6siwFZ…

❄️Sometimes the landscape resembles the planet Hoth from Star Wars. RT🔁 and like❤️ if you agree 📷: Fredi Quiñones, ALMA Photo-ambassador

Our #HubbleTopImage zooms in on a space oddity! The bizarre green blob of gas in this image is known as Hanny’s Voorwerp. It is the only visible part of a streamer of gas stretching 300,000 light-years around the spiral galaxy IC 2497 – visible because a beam of light from the galaxy’s core has illuminated it 🔦 This beam came from a quasar, a bright object powered by a black hole. Read more: ow.ly/6Q5i50Yp3sb #HubbleTopImage 📷 @NASA , @ESA , William Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa), and the Galaxy Zoo team

🔭El @VRubinObs NSF-DOE y el reciente eclipse lunar parcial del 03 de marzo, en cerro Pachón Chile. 📹: Gonzalo Meneses, Rubin Observatory