The APEX Radio Astronomy Telescope: Beginning of a New Chapter | ESO

The APEX Radio Astronomy Telescope: Beginning of a New Chapter | ESO

This video provides a glimpse into one of the highest altitude observatories on Earth: the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX). APEX is a telescope designed to explore cold, dark regions of our Universe, such as dense clouds of gas and cosmic dust where new stars are born. While visible light is obscured by the dust, these regions glow bright at the (sub)millimeter wavelengths that APEX observes. APEX allows astronomers, among other things, to study the chemical conditions within these clouds, detecting a variety of molecules in these dark, distant regions of our Universe.

Water vapor in the atmosphere absorbs these wavelengths. This is the reason APEX is located on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama Desert at an altitude of 5,100 meters (over 16,000 feet)—one of the driest regions on Earth with few clouds.

Once a joint project of the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), the Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) and the European Southern Observatory, APEX now enters a new chapter and becomes a project solely of the MPIfR. However, the science continues!

This caption was written by Julian Seeholzer, one of the winners of the European Contest for Young Scientists in 2023.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Editing: A. Tsaousis
Footage and photos: ESO, A. Tsaousis, B. Tafreshi, S. Molyneux, F. Mac Auliffe, ALMA/NAOJ/NRAO/General Dynamics C4 Systems
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Dec. 29, 2025

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