The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, shortened to the “ALMA radio telescope,” took a snap of the Antennae Galaxies from South America, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday. The new $1.3 billion radio telescope sits high in the Chilean Andes.
The amazing shot of the Antennae Galaxies shows the pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Corvus, the report said.
The galaxies are around 70 million light-years away and were captured by ALMA using two different wavelength ranges.
Researchers released the early image, shot during testing phases, to show off ALMA's capabilities but say images in the future will be better quality and sharper.
The 40ft radio telescope sits on the Chajnator plateau in the Atacama desert, some 1,500 km north of Santiago, at an elevation of 16,500ft.
Each of ALMA’s 66 antennas will be used to detect extremely cold objects, such as gas clouds formed by stars and planets, researchers said.
According to the Daily Mail, the telescope is now officially open and ready to explore the universe after years of planning and constructing the massive observatory it sits in alongside some of the world’s most complex ground-based telescopes.