The Chilean desert is one of the driest places on Earth.
Costing £950million to build, including around £65million from the UK, and billed as being ‘in search of our cosmic origins', it is hoped it will provide answers as to where the stars, the planets, and, ultimately where we came from.
By collecting radio waves rather than optical light, ALMA can look through the dense dust clouds of deep space.
This will give astronomers a glimpse of galaxies from just after the Big Bang.
It can also look at how individual stars and planets are formed. This could shine a light on our creation as it is believed the elements spewed out by dying stars went on the seed the sun, the planets and, eventually, humans.
It will also tell us more about where life came from by finding traces of compounds from water to chemicals similar those in DNA.
