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Japan last week joined Europe and the US in a plan to construct a huge new
radio telescope high in the Chilean Andes. Officials signed an agreement last
week to build the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, which will have 64 movable
12-metre radio telescopes sprawled across 14 kilometres. The dishes will combine
to give a resolution 10 times finer than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. The
European Southern Observatory and the US National Science Foundation had planned
to spend $556 million on the array. Now extra money from Japan will
enhance its capabilities.