Meet ALMA: the telescopes with altitude

ALMA short for Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array is a multinational partnership between the United States, Canada, Europe, East Asia and the Republic of Chile. Costing more than a billion dollars it is the most expensive ground based telescope currently under construction. ALMA began scientific observations in the second half of 2011 and the first images were released on October 3rd 2011. The project is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2012.