Wings for science fly over ALMA

This beautiful image, taken in December 2012, shows the array of antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) [1], the largest astronomy project in existence, located at the Chajnantor Plateau in the Chilean Andes. The large antennas are 12 metres in diameter, and the smaller ones, gathered together in the middle of the image, form the ALMA Compact Array (ACA), which is made up of 12 antennas with a diameter of 7 metres. When the array is completed, there will be a total of 66 antennas.

ESO has initiated an outreach partnership with the ORA Wings for Science project, a non-profit organisation which offers aerial support to public research while on a year-long journey around the world. The two crew members of the Wings for Science Project, Clémentine Bacri and Adrien Normier, fly a special environmentally friendly ultralight [2] to help out scientists by providing aerial capabilities ranging from air sampling to archaeology, biodiversity observation and 3D terrain modelling.

The short movies and amazing pictures that are produced during the flights are used for educational purposes and for promoting local research. Their circumnavigation started in June 2012 and will finish in June 2013 with a landing at the Paris Air Show.

Notes

[1] The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

[2] The ultralight aircraft is a NASA-award winning Pipistrel Virus SW 80 using only 7 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres — less than most cars.