The world’s future largest ground-based space project has taken a crucial step. The team working on the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array have successfully linked up two of the 66 dishes that will eventually work as one giant telescope.

ALMA is being built in the Chilean Andes and in 2011 it will begin observations in the millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths. On 30 April two of the antennas were synchronised with a precision of one millionth of a millionth of a second.

Without such synchronisation, ALMA will not be able to combine its 66 parts into one giant whole.

“We’re very proud and excited to have made this crucial observation, as it proves that the various hardware components work smoothly together,” says Wolfgang Wild, the European ALMA Project Manager (press release). “This brings us another step closer to full operations for ALMA as an astronomical observatory.”

Previous Nature ALMA coverage

First antenna switches on in the Atacama – December 31 2008

Antenna arrives at Atacama array – December 19, 2008

Image: the two antennas / ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)