S1 - 05. CHILE, ASTRONOMY WITHOUT LIMITS
Director(s): Pierre-François DIDEK – Writer(s): Serge BRUNIER, Bruno BUCHER Contact Print page
In pre-Columbian civilizations, astronomical observations were related to crop cycles and fertility myths. The Atacameños believed that the moon gave birth to the stars. Today, at the foot of the Andes, the village of San Pedro de Atacama has become a Mecca of Astronomers’ tourism - Serge Brunier has come to see an old friend, Alain Maury, who has transformed his garden into an observatory for amateur astronomers from around the world.
Just a few kilometres further south, at an altitude of 5000 meters above sea level, is one of the highest observatories in the world: ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimetre Array, is the largest astronomical project ever imagined. A giant 66-antenna array will allow observing the coldest and darkest areas in the universe, such as the clouds of gas and dust that give birth to stars and planets.
Such observation was virtually inaccessible up until now, but this telescope offers a vision of astonishing precision. Astronomers come here from around the globe to scrutinize the origins of the universe and to discover billions of planets in our galaxy alone.
ONLY FRENCH VERSION AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT THE MOMENT.