The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX)

APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, has been constructed by a collaboration between the Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR), the Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) , and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) as a modified ALMA prototype antenna on the high altitude site of Llano Chajnantor in northern Chile. The telescope was manufactured by VERTEX Antennentechnik in Duisburg, Germany and is now scientifically used by the MPIfR for astronomical observations at millimeter/submillimeter wavelengths.

 

Observing with APEX allows to study cold dust and gas in our own Milky Way and in distant galaxies. Tracing the thermal continuum emission and analyzing high frequency spectral lines improve our understanding of the structure and chemistry of planetary atmospheres, dying stars, regions of star formation as well as distant starburst galaxies, thereby probing the vast scales of the structure of the Universe down to the physics and chemistry of comets.

Further information is available on the project website.