NSF Award ID 0653330 (SPO-7) The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the most powerful, ground-based astronomical instrument in the history of mankind. Essentially, it is a gigantic radio interferometer array composed of sixty-six (66), transportable, parabolic antennas. By arranging these antennas over distances of up to 18.5 km, ALMA can perform at a resolution that is far superior to the Hubble Space Telescope. An international partnership was created in 2003 - between the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) - to design, development, build and test ALMA. The partnership was subsequently expanded to include the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). An official, trilateral agreement between the NSF, the ESO, and the National Institutes for Natural Sciences (NINS/NAOJ, Japan) was created in 2004. These international agreements laid the foundation for construction of the enhanced Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array on a remote Chilean plateau in South America. With the inclusion of the Asian partners, ALMA has become a truly global astronomical organization/facility, involving scientists from four different continents. The NAOJ contributed four (4) 12-meter diameter antennas, and twelve (12) 7-meter diameter antennas, to the partnership. These antennas comprise the Atacama Compact Array (ACA). The NAOJ also contributed the ACA Correlator (a super computer) and frequency-specific, radio receiver hardware to outfit the aforementioned sixteen (16) antennas. NSF Award ID 0653330 (SPO-7) funded the manufacture and test of a variety of component parts for the ACA Correlator, the ACA Front End Sub-system, first local oscillators for receiver bands 4, 8 and 10, and integration services for all of the above. Manufacturing, test and integration operations commenced in 2005 and continued through September 2014. These activities were managed by Associated Universities, Incorporated and performed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, in Charlottesville, Virginia. All hardware has been successfully delivered to the ALMA Operations site in Chile and the hardware is progressing through the final stage of Commissioning Science and Verification. ALMA is delivering breakthroughs in solving the great mysteries of the Universe, such as the formation of galaxies immediately after the Big Bang, the ongoing births of planetary systems, and the evolution of cosmic matter leading to the origin of life. Disclaimer: This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
