Ground-Based Observatories

Optical / infrared / submillimeter complex · United States (Hawaii)

Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii, hosts a cluster of the world's most powerful optical, infrared, and submillimeter telescopes at 4,200 metres.

Optical / infrared observatory · United States (Hawaii)

The W. M. Keck Observatory operates two 10-metre telescopes on Mauna Kea, among the largest optical and infrared telescopes in the world.

Radio interferometer · United States (New Mexico)

The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array is an array of 27 radio antennas in New Mexico that work together as a single, steerable radio telescope.

Millimeter / submillimeter array · Chile

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array is a set of 66 antennas at 5,000 metres in the Atacama Desert, studying cold gas and dust.

Optical observatory · United States (California)

Palomar Observatory in California, operated by Caltech, is home to the historic 200-inch Hale Telescope.

Optical / infrared observatory · United States / Chile

Gemini Observatory operates twin 8.1-metre telescopes — Gemini North in Hawaii and Gemini South in Chile — giving access to the entire sky.

Optical survey observatory · Chile

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will carry out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), imaging the entire southern sky every few nights.

Optical / infrared observatory · Chile

ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert is home to the Very Large Telescope, one of the most productive ground-based facilities in astronomy.

Optical observatory · Chile

La Silla was ESO's first observatory, a pioneering site on the edge of the Atacama Desert still productive in exoplanet and survey science.

Optical observatory · Chile

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile is a NOIRLab site whose telescopes carried out the Dark Energy Survey.

Optical observatory · United States (Arizona)

Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona hosts one of the largest collections of optical telescopes in the Northern Hemisphere.

Optical / gamma-ray observatory · Spain (Canary Islands)

The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma is one of the premier observing sites of the Northern Hemisphere, home to the Gran Telescopio Canarias.

Optical observatory · United States (California)

Mount Wilson Observatory in California is where Edwin Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe, using the 100-inch Hooker Telescope.

Radio observatory · United States (Puerto Rico)

Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico operated a 305-metre radio dish — for decades the largest single-dish radio telescope — until its collapse in 2020.

Gravitational-wave observatory · United States (Washington)

LIGO Hanford in Washington State is one of the two US Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory detectors that made the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015.

Gravitational-wave observatory · United States (Louisiana)

LIGO Livingston in Louisiana is the second US LIGO detector; together with LIGO Hanford it detected the first gravitational waves from merging black holes.

Gravitational-wave observatory · Italy

Virgo is a European gravitational-wave detector near Pisa, Italy, that observes together with LIGO to localise sources on the sky.

Neutrino observatory · Antarctica

IceCube embeds thousands of light sensors in a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice to detect high-energy neutrinos from the cosmos.