World's most powerful telescope begins scientific operation

Astronomers in Chile have been building the world's most powerful telescope high up in the Atacama desert.

The Alma (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) telescope facility involves the construction of 66 giant antennas on top of a 5,000m-high plateau.

Costing more than a billion US dollars, the Alma will seek to unravel the mysteries behind the formation of the first stars in the Universe.

Pallab Ghosh reports.