ALMA

Today's picture of the day makes a point, of sorts.  But first, the random, seemingly unrelated fact that alma is the spanish word for soul.

Radio Astronomy: A new window on the Universe

At almost every bilingual gathering I attend most conversations go something like this, usually half in english half in spanish.

Them - My name is _____

Me - My name is ______

Them - How long have you been in Chile?

Me - _____ months.

Them - Are you teaching english/studying?

Me - No, I'm working at Catolica. I am an astronomer.

As soon as they find out I am an astronomer I, get one of two questions, sometimes both.

1 - Do you work/live in the North?

My usual response is just "No, I live in Santiago. Though I go up to the North to use the telescopes once in a while." What I really want to say, especially after answering this question ten times in one evening, is: "Actually this astronomer, and most of her fellows, live in Las Condes, Providencia and Centro and work at ESO, Catolica or U. Chile. In my case, pisco sours and Peruvan food are way too enjoyable for me to spend more time than nessecary on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere." However, when meeting new people I try to keep the snark to a minimum.

2 - Do you work for ALMA?

For the non-astronomers, ALMA is the Atacama Large Milimeter Array and happens to be the most awesome thing in astronomy since the Hubble Space Telescope or the CCD, depending on what wavelength the person you ask specializes in. (A CCD is a Charged-Coupled Device. Look at your digital camera, your phone, your computer, anything you use to take a digital image, they all have versions of a CCD chip in them. So modern digital photography, brought to you by astronomy. Spread the word.) But back to ALMA. ALMA is the shiz. It detected CO gas at z=6 (12.4 billion light years away) in 19 minutes!!!! Which is just 100 kinds of kick ass. Anyway, ALMA cost billions of dollars and took more than 20 years to develop and build, with the money and expertise coming from the US, Canada, Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Chile. So whether you crumble the cookie from the science or the money/technology side ALMA is a bit deal. 

Which brings me to my point.

Most Chileans I talk to, from those at international meet-ups in Las Condes to the occasional taxi driver, know about ALMA. Today's picture is the display in Metro Baquedano (the equivalent of L'Enfant Plaza in DC). The current Chilean President came to the dedication a few weeks ago.

In contrast, I'm not sure that most of my family members know what ALMA is and that their tax dollars helped pay for it, let alone why it rocks. Which explains, in a round about way, why I am living in Chile, where, with any luck, in the next 18 months I get to work with data from this remarkable instrument (or more correctly work with people who work with the data, I am a theorist after all). It is remarkable to be in a place where astronomy is so visible.