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Snow reached Chile’s high-altitude Chajnantor Plateau on June 25, 2025, prompting the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to pause observations and park its 66 antennas in a protective configuration. The telescope did not permanently fail: “went dark” means it temporarily stopped collecting astronomical data while severe weather passed.
What happened at ALMA?
A cold-core cyclone brought snow to much of the higher-elevation Altiplano in northern Chile, including the plateau where ALMA operates. The observatory sits more than 5,000 meters (about 16,000 feet) above sea level in the Atacama Desert. Snow is unusual there, but not impossible, especially at high elevations during the Southern Hemisphere winter.
ALMA suspended observations and moved its antennas into what reports called “survival mode.” The dishes were pointed nearly vertically, reducing the chance that snow would collect on their surfaces. This was a precautionary operating state, not evidence that the array had lost control or suffered a confirmed major failure. Live Science reported the protective shutdown; NASA’s account confirms the snowfall and notes that news reports said ALMA suspended operations.
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A radio array built to study cold, hidden parts of the universe
ALMA is not a conventional visible-light telescope. Its 66 antennas work together as an interferometer, observing millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths—roughly 0.32 to 3.6 millimeters. Those signals reveal cold gas and dust in molecular clouds, star-forming regions, planetary systems and distant galaxies that can be difficult to study in visible light.
The array combines 50 twelve-meter antennas with a compact grouping of 12 more antennas: four that are 12 meters across and eight that are 7 meters across. Antenna positions can be changed, with separations spanning roughly 150 meters to 16 kilometers, to adjust the detail ALMA can resolve. ALMA’s overview and the European Southern Observatory’s profile describe the array and its capabilities.
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Why build an observatory in such a dry place?
Water vapor absorbs millimeter and submillimeter radiation, so a dry atmosphere helps those signals reach the antennas. Chajnantor’s high elevation and typically low atmospheric water vapor make it an exceptional observing site. The same remoteness and altitude that benefit observations, however, make weather and access important operational concerns.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallThe broader Atacama is extraordinarily arid because several factors limit moisture. The Andes block much of the moisture arriving from inland South America, creating a rain shadow, while the cold Peru–Chile Current cools air over the Pacific and reduces evaporation and cloud formation. These conditions help explain the region’s dryness; they do not mean that every part of the desert is equally dry or that precipitation never occurs. NASA’s Earth Observatory describes the weather setting behind the 2025 snowfall.
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Snow matters for more than the observing schedule. Accumulation can add weight to large dish surfaces, while moisture, freezing conditions, difficult transport and risks to personnel can complicate operations. Atmospheric conditions also need to be stable and dry for high-quality observations. A protective shutdown helps avoid operating precision equipment through unsuitable conditions; it does not imply that a small amount of snow inevitably damages receivers.
Snowfall was visible in satellite images for weeks
NASA compared satellite imagery showing snow in the region on June 26, July 10 and July 16, 2025. Much of it had disappeared by July 16. That timeline describes the snow visible across the landscape, not the duration of ALMA’s shutdown; the reviewed primary account does not provide a precise outage length.
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Snow’s rapid disappearance is not necessarily just melting into runoff. NASA points to sublimation—the direct change of ice into water vapor—as an important process in the region. Very dry air, clear skies, high elevation and exceptionally strong solar radiation help remove snow quickly. Research on the Altiplano documents some of the highest solar irradiance levels measured on Earth (Cordero and colleagues).
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Rare does not mean unprecedented
Comparable snowfall events in the region were recorded in 2011, 2013 and 2021, according to NASA. Descriptions of the 2025 storm as the first in more than a decade may refer to a particular location or comparison, not to the entire Atacama. The desert is vast, and snowfall on its high plateau should not be mistaken for snow covering all of its lowland terrain.
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Nor does a single storm prove that climate change is making the Atacama wet. The cyclone and snowfall are a weather event; determining whether long-term climate patterns are changing requires records over time, and attributing a particular storm to climate change requires a specific analysis. The reviewed sources do not provide an attribution study for this event. Past unusual precipitation, such as the severe 2015 Atacama rainfall and flooding, is a separate event with its own proposed atmospheric explanation (Geophysical Research Letters study).
Were other Chilean observatories affected?
Reporting indicated the SOAR Telescope, about 850 kilometers southwest of ALMA, may have experienced some effects to a lesser degree. The same report said the Vera C. Rubin Observatory was not affected. These are different facilities, and the reports do not support saying that all Chilean observatories shut down. ALMA is a millimeter/submillimeter radio array; Rubin is a visible- and near-infrared survey telescope.
What “went dark” actually means
ALMA’s antennas were placed in a protective position and observations paused during rare high-altitude snow. Satellite images show snow persisting in parts of the plateau region into July before much of it disappeared. The event was unusual, not unprecedented, and the available evidence does not establish either lasting damage or a climate-change cause.
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