ALMA Atacama Large Milimeter Array
In the Chajnantor Plateau in the Atacama Desert, one of the highest and driest places on Earth, a gentle “rain” is falling. It is light from space, in millimetric and submillimetric wavelengths, a natural, scarce and precious resource. It is well-known that these waves are full of information about our cosmic origins, that is why people thirsty for this knowledge have gathered here to collect, channel and analyze it.
This is what gives rise to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), currently the largest radio telescope in the world. This achievement is the result of an international association between Europe (ESO), North America (NRAO) and East Asia (NAOJ), in collaboration with the Republic of Chile, to build the observatory of the “Dark Universe”.
San Pedro de Atacama Desert
San Pedro de Atacama is a Chilean town and commune in El Loa Province, Antofagasta Region. It is located east of Antofagasta, some 106 km (60 mi) southeast of Calama and the Chuquicamata copper mine, overlooking the Licancabur volcano. It features a significant archeological museum, the R. P. Gustavo Le Paige Archaeological Museum, with a large collection of relics and artifacts from the region. Native ruins nearby attract increasing numbers of tourists interested in learning about pre-Columbian cultures.
Miscanti lagoon
Miscanti Lake (Spanish: Laguna Miscanti) is a brackish water lake located in the altiplano of the Antofagasta Region, in northern Chile. Miñiques volcano and Cerro Miscanti tower over this lake. This heart-shaped lake has a deep blue color. The western shoreline of the lake is separated by less than 1 km from the drainage divide between the lake and the Salar de Atacama basins. Laguna Miscanti basin also has a common boundary with Salar de Talar basin.
A lava flow from an eruption of Miñiques separated Miscanti Lake from Miñiques Lake.
The lake is part of one of the seven sectors of Los Flamencos National Reserve.
San Pedro de Atacama Lagoons
The Salar de Atacama normally forms a part of tours from the region’s main settlement, San Pedro de Atacama. Its top highlights include a number of shallow, saline lagoons that dot the area and which are home to a surprising amount of wildlife.
Salar de Atacama
Salar de Atacama is the largest salt flat in Chile. It is located 55 km (34 mi) south of San Pedro de Atacama, is surrounded by mountains, and has no drainage outlets. In the east it is enclosed by the main chain of the Andes, while to the west lies a secondary mountain range of the Andes called Cordillera de Domeyko. Large volcanoes dominate the landscape, including the Licancabur, Acamarachi, Aguas Calientes and the Láscar. The last is one of the most active volcanoes in Chile. All of them are located along the eastern side of the Salar de Atacama, forming a generally north-south trending line of volcanoes that separate it from smaller endorheic basins.
Valle de la Luna (Valley of the moon)
El Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) is located 13 kilometres (8 mi) west of San Pedro de Atacama, in the north of Chile in the Cordillera de la Sal, in the Atacama desert. It has various stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water. It has an impressive range of color and texture, looking somewhat similar to the surface of the moon. There are also dry lakes where the composition of salt makes a white covering layer of the area. It presents diverse saline outcrops which appear like man-made sculptures. There are also a great variety of caverns. When the sun sinks it defines the landscape while the wind blows among the rocks and the sky passes from pink color to purple and finally black. Valle de la Luna is a part of the Reserva Nacional los Flamencos and was declared a Nature Sanctuary in 1982 for its natural environment and strange lunar landscape, from which its name is derived. The Atacama desert is also considered one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years. A prototype for a Mars rover was tested there by scientists because of the valley's dry and forbidding terrains.