Llano de Chajnantor Observatory

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Llano de Chajnantor from Cerro Toco. APEX (left) and CBI (far center) can be seen.

Llano de Chajnantor Observatory is an astronomical observatory located at 5104 m altitude in the Chilean Atacama desert, 50 kilometers to the east of San Pedro de Atacama. It is a very dry site - inhospitable to humans - but an excellent site for submillimetre astronomy. Water vapour absorbs and attenuates submillimetre radiation and thus a dry site is required for this type of short-wavelength radio astronomy. It hosts some of the largest and most expensive astronomical telescopes in the world, with about 1 billion US dollars already allocated for projects on the site.

[edit] Chronology of telescopes

In 1999, the CBI was the first radio telescope to start observations under Chajnantor skies. In 2002, ASTE arrived at Pampa La Bola. Then: APEX in 2003, NANTEN2 in 2004, ACT in 2007. QUIET in 2008 and Mini-Tao in 2009. ALMA is under construction.

[edit] Telescopes on the Llano de Chajnantor site

• Cosmic Background Imager (CBI)
• Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX)
• Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)
• QU Imaging Experiment (QUIET)
• Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO)

[edit] Telescopes on the adjacent Pampa La Bola site

• ASTE (Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment)
• NANTEN2 Observatory (NANTEN2)

[edit] See also

• Purico Complex

[edit] External links

• Description of a trip to Llano de Chajnantor Observatory on BBC News

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