First observations from telescope link up made

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers and engineers at an international astronomy project have made the first observations linking radio signals from two telescopes.

The telescopes, at altitudes of 5000 metres in the Andes Mountains of Chile, are part of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA).

The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, which hosts the UK's ALMA Regional Centre, helped develop the technology on the optical fibre systems linking the 66 telescopes which will form the final array.

The observations used the full suite of the production equipment developed for ALMA, including two high-precision 12-metre diameter antennas and sophisticated electronic systems for receiving and correlating the signals.

This is the first time the complex items, almost all of which are at the leading edge of technology, have been used together as a complete system.

Provided by University of Manchester