Observing the Cool Universe

Description
ALMA - the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array - is the most ambitious ground-based astronomy project ever attempted. When completed in 2013, it will be the most powerful instrument for observations at wavelengths between 3mm and 0.3mm, with extremely high sensitivity at high spatial resolution. ALMA is an aperture-synthesis array of 66 antennas, currently under construction at an altitude of 5000m in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile by an international consortium. ALMA's primary science goals address the formation of galaxies, stars and planets, observed primarily through molecular lines and thermal emission from cool dust, but it has been designed as an extremely versatile instrument with applications throughout astrophysics and astrochemistry. I will describe the scientific aims of ALMA, outline the innovative technology required to achieve them at a level suitable for non-specialists and give an update on commissioning results.
Organised by Alessandro Costa