Aeon Video has a monthly newsletter!
Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
How scientists at the ALMA telescope in Chile decode the secrets of the cosmos
Chile’s Atacama Desert, home of the massive ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) telescope, is the place on Earth most like Mars. Made up of 66 massive antennae atop a high plateau in the Atacama, ALMA ranks alongside the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France as one of humanity’s most massive, international scientific collaborations. The sophisticated telescope system uses radio frequencies to detect millimetre wavelengths instead of relying on visible light, looking back through billions of light years to uncover the make-up of massive dust clouds and galaxies. In time, scientists believe the project will revolutionise our understanding of the origins of our own solar system, stars, and galaxy.
Director: Jonathan de Villiers
Website: NOWNESS
video
Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
5 minutes
video
Physics
To change the way you see the Moon, view it from the Sun’s perspective
5 minutes
video
Physics
What does it look like to hunt for dark matter? Scenes from one frontier in the search
7 minutes
video
Physics
Imagining spacetime as a visible grid is an extraordinary journey into the unseen
12 minutes
video
Physics
The abyss at the edge of human understanding – a voyage into a black hole
4 minutes
video
Chemistry
Why do the building blocks of life possess a mysterious symmetry?
12 minutes
video
Cosmology
Tiny, entangled universes that form or fizzle out – a theory of the quantum multiverse
11 minutes
video
Astronomy
The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t
34 minutes
video
Cosmology
The Indian astronomer whose innovative work on black holes was mocked at Cambridge
13 minutes