Ancient Constellations over ALMA
{"Image ImageDescription": "Babak Tafreshi, one of the ESO Photo Ambassadors,  has captured the antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter  Array (ALMA) in an enthralling image combining the beauty of the  southern sky with the amazing dimensions of the biggest astronomical  project in the world. Thousands  of stars are revealed to the naked eye in the clear skies over the  Chajnantor Plateau. Its dry and transparent night sky is one of the  reasons ALMA has been built here. Surprisingly bright in the upper left  corner of the picture, there is a tightly packed bunch of young stars,  the Pleiades Cluster, which was already known to most ancient  civilisations. The constellation of Orion (The Hunter) is clearly  visible over the closest of the antennas \u2014  the hunter\u2019s belt is formed by the three blue stars just to the left of  the red light. According to classic mythology, Orion was a hunter who  chased the Pleiades, the beautiful daughters of Atlas. When seen through  the thin atmosphere over the Atacama, it almost seems that this epic  hunt is really happening. ALMA,  an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North  America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA  construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on  behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory  (NRAO), and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical  Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides  the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning  and operation of ALMA."}