Can't see my 200P standing up to this.

[Daz Type-R]

Thunderstorms, heavy rain, snow, floods and mudslides are not exactly what one would expect to see in the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile.

But for the past two months, these were the working conditions of the team of scientists at one of the world's biggest astronomy projects, the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (Alma).

A striking contrast from the usual sunshine and clear skies that I experienced when visiting the place just days before the mayhem started.

Alma is a giant radio telescope currently being built at Chajnantor plateau, the highest site in the Chilean Andes, at more than 5,000m above sea level.

The antennas managed to withstand thunderstorms and heavy rain without any damage

The construction began in 2003 and is now almost halfway complete.

Once fully operational, Alma will consist of 66 radio antennas that will probe the sky in a bid to unlock secrets of the Universe's formation.

Although the array is not finished yet, it has already delivered some interesting results. Chilean researcher Cinthya Herrera has published the first science paper to come out of Alma: a study of star forming clusters that have resulted from the merger of a pair of spiral galaxies called "The Antennae".

Being a radio telescope, Alma works differently from an optical one, picking up the wavelengths of light invisible to the human eye.

"The light is composed of optical light which is what we see, but also of infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays, microwaves and radio waves; all of this is called electromagnetic spectrum," explains astronomer Paulo Cortes.

"Alma is interested in the millimetre and submillimetre part of that spectrum - this is the region of the cold gas from which stars form.

"By detecting the radiation emitted by that cold gas, we can understand how big structures are assembled - in other words, how stars, planets and galaxies are formed."

And this may shed light on the birth of our Universe, more than 13 billion years ago.

Alma is a joint project between Europe, North America and East Asia

[BAZ]

Would you let me watch with you if you did!

It would be one hell of a claim story to replace it. "Honestly, one minute it was there, a big flash and bang and it was gone".