Alma, the world's most powerful radio telescope, launches in Chile - video

An £870m observatory has begun operating in a Chilean desert. The Alma group of telescopes can delve deeper into space than ever before

The most powerful millimetre/submillimetre-wavelength telescope in the world opens for business and reveals its first image

Alma, a super-sensitive radio telescope 5,000m above sea level in Chile, will detect a new galaxy every three minutes. Alok Jha reports from the forbidding Atacama desert

South Africa battles Australia and New Zealand for vast £1.3bn stargazer Square Kilometre Array project

The VLT, located in Chile, collects and focuses light from distant stars on to a detector, providing vital information about the universe and our place in it

World's most expensive and sophisticated observatory will have capability to find a new galaxy every three minutes

VLT Survey Telescope in the Atacama desert will contribute to research into dark matter, dark energy and evolution of galaxies

The largest astronomical project in the world will see dust 13bn light years away – as it was half a billion years after the big bang