--- title: "Hackers Just Took Down One of the World’s Most Advanced Telescopes" description: "Observatory Offline The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in Chile has been hit with a cyberattack that has taken its website offline and forced it to suspend all observations, according to a tweet from its official Twitter. Even email services were limited in the aftermath, illustrating the broad impact of the hack. Thankfully, ALMA's […]" date: "2022-11-03" modified: "2022-11-03" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/hackers-took-down-alma-telescopes" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "alma" - "alma radio telescope" - "cyberattacks" - "the digest" --- # Hackers Just Took Down One of the World’s Most Advanced Telescopes ![ALMA is one of the largest and most advanced radio telescopes in the world. And for reasons still unknown to the public, hackers decided to take it down.]() *\Image: Futurism\* ## Observatory Offline The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in Chile has been hit with a cyberattack that has taken its website offline and forced it to suspend all observations, [authorities there said](). Even email services were limited in the aftermath, illustrating the broad impact of the hack. Nested high up on a plateau in the Chilean Andes at over 16,000 feet above sea level, ALMA is one of the most powerful and advanced radio telescopes in the world. Notably, ALMA helped take the [first image of a black hole]() in 2019, in a collaborative effort that linked radio observatories worldwide into forming the Event Horizon Telescope. Thankfully, ALMA's impressive arsenal of 66 high-precision antennas, each nearly 40 feet in diameter, was not compromised, the observatory said, nor was any of the scientific data those instruments collected. ## In High Places What makes ALMA so invaluable is its specialty in observing the light of the cooler substances of the cosmos, namely gas and dust. That makes ALMA a prime candidate for documenting the fascinating formations of planets and stars when they first emerge amidst clouds of gas. Since going fully operational in 2013, it's become the largest ground-based astronomical project in the world, [according to the European Southern Observatory](), ALMA's primary operators. So ALMA going offline is a distressing development, especially to the thousands of astronomers worldwide that rely on its observations and the **some** 300 experts working onsite. Getting it up and running is obviously a top priority, but the observatory said in a [followup tweet]() that "it is not yet possible to estimate a date for a return to regular activities." As of now, there's no information available on who the hackers were, or exactly how they conducted the attack. Their motivations, too, remain a mystery. **More on ALMA:** *[Astronomers Think They Found the Youngest Planet in the Galaxy]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()