❖ The world’s highest astronomical observatory at 5,640 metres (18,500 feet) above sea level is now open in the Atacama Desert, Chile.

❖ The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) is now built and fully operational, sitting on the summit of a mountain in the Atacama Desert.

❖ The TAO’s telescope is 6.5 metres in length and consists of two science instruments designed to observe the universe in infrared.

❖ One of the instruments, SWIMS, will image galaxies from the very early universe. 

❖ The second, named MIMIZUKU, will aid the overarching science goal by studying primordial disks of dust.