Snow in Atacama Desert pauses world’s largest radio telescope

Snowfall was recorded in Chile's Atacama Desert in July 2025. Satellite images showed snow, caused by rare cold-core cyclone, across the Chajnantor Plateau. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, world's largest radio telescope, entered survival mode, halting observations and repositioning antennas to protect equipment from damage as temperatures plunged and operations were suspended.