Also at the June meeting of the American Astronomical Society, astronomers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Instituto Nacional de Astrofosica, Optica y Electronica in Puebla, Mexico revealed plans to build one of the world's largest high-precision radiotelescopes. Dubbed the Large Millimeter Wave Telescope (LMT), the 50-meter instrument will be constructed over the next five years on a yet-to-be selected mountain site in Mexico.

Millimeter waves (shorter than the waves observed by conventional radio telescopes) can penetrate through dust clouds and interstellar haze, revealing the hidden details of star birth, planetary formation and other mysterious astronomical processes. When completed, the LMT's huge dish-shaped antenna will stand taller than a 16-story building, and be able to point to a cosmic source with an accuracy of 1/1,000th of a degree (about four arc- seconds). It will also provide a view of the southern sky that is relatively unexplored, and which includes the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

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