Professional observatories in Mexico

Glossary

primary dish (noun)
The main, curved surface of a telescope that collects and focuses incoming light or radio waves. It acts like a giant bucket, catching faint signals from the deepest parts of space and bouncing them to a central receiver. For example, the massive 50-meter primary dish atop Sierra Negra is wide enough to capture incredibly weak radio waves from the early universe.

choko Large Millimeter Telescope

High on Sierra Negra, we are staring out of bounds, Our giant dish is tuned to catch the secret cosmic sounds.

choko We turned Earth into a giant virtual telescope to photograph a black hole.

US and Mexican scientists teamed up to peer into the coldest corners of space.

choko Explore how INAOE and UMass Amherst researchers use a giant telescope to study the coldest, dustiest regions of space in this infographic.

Water vapor in our air actually blocks faint radio signals from deep space.

choko Telescopes on dry mountains escape the wet air that blocks faint space signals.

BETA

choko Play the Sierra Star Scoop game to explore the giant telescope dish of Sierra Negra. Discover Mexico's professional space observatory.

Fun Fact

Sierra Negra's dish: Mexico's Large Millimeter Telescope was a key part of the global network that captured the historic first-ever image of a black hole in 2019!

Glossary

antenna (noun)
A metallic apparatus used for sending or receiving electromagnetic signals. The Large Millimeter Telescope on Mexico's Sierra Negra volcano utilizes a massive fifty-meter parabolic antenna.

Gossip

Would you rather visit a volcano or a giant space dish?

Quiz

In what year did the Event Horizon Telescope release the first-ever image of a black hole?

choko Slicing through cosmic dust

choko Discover how Mexico's professional observatories use advanced technology to peer through cosmic dust in this detailed educational infographic.

choko See the impressive fifty-meter movable giant, a key professional observatory in Mexico, captured in this detailed educational image.