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ALMA Groundbreaking Ceremony Presentations
Piet Van der Kruit, Director, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute,
Chair ALMA Board
Mrs. Paulina Saball, Undersecretary of the Bienes Nacionales, Mr. Jorge
Molina, Intendente of the Second Region, Distinguished Ambassadors,
Esteemed Authorities, Dear colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are children of the universe. Actually, we are children of the universe
in a very strict sense. Look at our bodies. By weight we are made up for
about a quarter or so of hydrogen. The rest is in other chemical elements,
of which carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are the major contributors. In
contrast, the Universe, when it was about three minutes old and
sufficiently cool that atomic nuclei could exist, consisted for
three-quarters of hydrogen and one quarter of helium. There was no carbon,
no nitrogen, no oxygen or any other chemical element except traces of
lithium and boron. We now know that the chemical elements that make up
most of our bodies were formed by nuclear reactions in heavy stars that
live for a very short while and blow themselves up as supernovae and
release the heavy elements into the interstellar gas so that new planets
and possibly life can be formed. We are stardust.
Astronomy, astrophysics and nuclear physics have made it possible for us
to understand how the chemical elements were formed. I regard this as one
of the greatest accomplishments of science in the twentieth century. It is
amazing that physical science is so powerful to make it possible for us to
appreciate our origin.
Astronomers study our roots and our relation as human beings to the
cosmos. But astronomy is an observational science. We will not understand
the universe simply by pure thought, but rather we start by looking at it.
We presently observe in the optical with giant telescopes, such as the
VLT, Gemini, Keck, Magellan, etc., some of which are here in Chile. We use
telescopes in space to observe at wavelengths that cannot be observed from
the ground, such as in the X-ray region and the far infrared. We have
built very large radio telescopes and we have linked these or have
constructed arrays, using the same principle as ALMA will use.
In the last few decades, astronomers have realized the richness of the
millimetre and submillimetre spectrum and the potential for observations
there to solve the current questions in astrophysics. Therefore millimetre
telescopes have been built, again including one on Chilean soil at La
Silla, and arrays have been constructed in particular in North America,
Europe and Japan. These already use the spectral lines that can be
observed at millimetre wavelengths to study the chemical composition in
regions of star formation, especially in the gas and dust in cool regions.
In spite of progress in the twentieth century, such as understanding
nucleosynthesis mentioned above, there are still fundamental questions
left. Some important ones among these are the following. When and how did
galaxies form and in what way did early star formation and chemical
enrichment take place? How do planets form around young stars? To
completely solve all aspects of these and other problems we absolutely
need to be able to observe at millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths.
I myself had the privilege as a graduate student in Leiden, the
Netherlands, to have Professor Jan Oort as my thesis supervisor. This was
in the days of completion of the construction of the Westerbork radio
telescope and he always stressed that it was the unexpected to look
forward to. So will it also be for ALMA.
In order to build an instrument like ALMA we need a site in a very dry
climate, at a high altitude and with a relatively flat area with
dimensions of order ten kilometres. We have been fortunate that such a
unique site is in existence here in Chile at Chajnantor.
After a number of initiatives in various continents to start a project to
construct a millimetre array, eventually collaboration grew out of this
between North America (that is, the U.S.A. and Canada) and Europe (the
member states of the European Southern Observatory and Spain; ESO states
are Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). Unfortunately Japan, which
was involved in the definition of the project, is not taking part now and
the original plan had to be scaled down to what we call the "baseline
ALMA". But we are very hopeful, and actually heard very encouraging news
the last few days at the ALMA Board, that Japan will join us soon to build
an even more powerful ALMA than we are constructing now.
I would like to express, also on behalf of the ALMA Board, my gratefulness
to:
- the visionaries who believed ALMA was the biggest step astronomy could
make at the present time and never gave up to try to convince others;
- the scientists and engineers that believed in it and showed that ALMA
is possible technically and financially;
- administrators and politicians that also believed in it and convinced
ministers and high officials that ALMA should be funded;
- authorities that solved political and legal problems;
- and last but not least everyone at whatever level, in whatever
capacity
and from whatever country that contributed in whatever way to the fact
that today we can formally start the construction of ALMA.
A los Chilenos y particularmente a la gente de la comuna de San Pedro:
Muchas gracias por su cooperación en este lugar tan único y para permitir
el desarrollo de la astronomía en su territorio hermoso. Estamos
agradecidos y les deseamos todo lo mejor.
Modified on Friday, 12-Dec-2003 13:19:51 EST
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