EPFL astronomers win observing time on ALMA

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is the largest radio telescope ever built. An international team of astronomers led by EPFL scientists has been granted observing time on this brand new and highly competitive facility to observe a distant quasar affected by strong gravitational lensing. Due to gravitational lensing the quasar is seen multiple, making it of utmost interest in terms of cosmological applications. In particular, the new ALMA observations will help using the object as a "cosmological probe", i.e., to measure the current expansion rate of the Universe, known as the Hubble constant. Large arrays of antenna operating in the radio domain represent a new approach in observational astrophysics. The future radio array SKA (Square Kilometer Array) will be even larger than ALMA and will map the whole sky at radio wavelengths. The time allocated to EPFL scientist on ALMA will help pave the way to the future SKA observations.