September 13, 2007 12:50 PM PDT
The Submillimeter Array, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Taiwan's Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, is used to study the Solar System, protoplanetary disks, star forming regions, evolved star envelopes, the Galactic Center, nearby galaxies and ultraluminous far-away galaxies. It's especially good at detecting far-away phenomena that are so cold they're almost at absolute zero. The array includes eight elements (that is, large 6-meter dishes) that operate in frequencies from 180 GHz to 900 GHz.
Photo by Declan McCullagh/CNET News.com
