Google Street View allows you to visit an observatory in Chile

O Google Street View, a service that allows users to view city streets, enabled a virtual visit to the most important astronomical observatory in the world, the ALMA (Large Atacama Radio Telescope), located in the Atacama Desert, in northern Chile.

A special Google equipment, mounted with 15 panoramic lenses, two computers and a total of 8 hours of autonomy, recorded the most spectacular images of the installations of this important observatory, located on two levels, at an altitude of 2.900 meters on the Chajnantor plain, which is located more than 5.000 meters above sea level.

The virtual tour with 360 degree panoramic images from ALMA is added to those of the La Silla and Paranal observatories, also in northern Chile, which could already be seen before by Google Street View, incorporated into the Google Maps application.

The observatory has 66 high-tech antennas and collects information about the origins of the universe, being able to record and capture millimeter waves completely invisible to the human eye.

from AFP | ppgad@pucrs.br