Video Icon
VIDEO

A star is born in the Atacama as £950m Alma observatory is unveiled

The world’s largest, most expensive ground-based observatory has captured images of massive “starburst” galaxies being born shortly after the Big Bang.

The Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (Alma) telescope in Chile was officially opened yesterday, but during the past year has already been casting its eye on the coldest, most distant corners of the Universe.

The images include one showing the earliest known formation of a starburst galaxy 12 billion years ago; one billion years after the birth of the Universe. Rather than forming gradually, as was previously thought, these ancient galaxies exploded into existence, astronomers found. Thomas Greve, of University College London, described it as the astronomical equivalent to “switching on the lights on a Christmas tree”.

Based in the Chajnantor plateau, northern Chile, at