Editor's Summary
2 February 2006
The battle of ALMA
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array is under construction in the Atacama desert in Chile. High altitude and a dry atmosphere should make for ideal 'seeing' of the submillimetre universe between far-infrared and high-frequency radio bands. But soaring costs are plaguing the project. Already planners talk of 50 antennas instead of the hoped-for 64. This telescope has been decades in the making: will it be worth the wait?
News Feature: Radio astronomy: High and dry
Two decades after plans were set in motion for the world's most powerful ground-based telescope, astronomers are bracing themselves for a downgrade to curb escalating costs. Jeff Kanipe reports.
doi:10.1038/439526a