Alma telescope opens its eyes – in pictures

Alma's view of the Antennae galaxies, created using measurements from 16 of the dishes installed on the Chajnantor plateau in the Atacama desert, Chile. The Antennae are a pair of distorted spiral galaxies that are colliding about 70m light-years from Earth
Photograph: European Southern Observatory

A composite of Alma and Hubble observations of the Antennae galaxies. The blue colours represent the best-quality optical image taken of this region of space so far – by Hubble. The red, pink and yellow show previously unseen wavelengths of light emanating from the vast carbon monoxide clouds that float in and between the galaxies, imaged by Alma for the first time. The clouds contain gases with a total mass several billion times that of our sun Photograph: European Southern Observatory

A side-by-side comparison of Alma and Very Large Telescope (VLT) observations of the Antennae galaxies Photograph: European Southern Observatory

A wide-field view of the region around the Antennae galaxies Photograph: European Southern Observatory

The Antennae galaxies' position in the constellation of Corvus Photograph: European Southern Observatory

Nineteen Alma antennas on the Chajnantor plateau Photograph: European Southern Observatory

View of the Chajnantor plateau from nearby Cerro Toco Photograph: European Southern Observatory