New telescope brings distant galaxies into sharp focus

New telescope brings distant galaxies into sharp focus. Durham University astronomers have played a key role in research using a powerful new telescope to bring images of the distant Universe into much sharper focus. Durham University astronomers have played a key role in research using a powerful new telescope to bring images of the distant Universe into much sharper focus. Fertile star-forming galaxies that were highly active when the Universe was at a relatively youthful age - less than three billion years old - can now be seen in images that are significantly sharper than anything previously possible. The international team has used the newly-launched ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) telescope to pinpoint the locations of more than 100 of the most fertile star-forming galaxies in the early Universe. ALMA, located in the high altitude desert of northern Chile and made up of 66 high precision radio antennas, is so powerful that in just a few hours it captured as many observations of these galaxies as have been made by all similar telescopes worldwide over a span of more than a decade. Dr Mark Swinbank , of Durham University's Department of Physics , co-authored a paper on the research.