Very Large Array

Dishes of the Very Large Array on the Plains of San Agustin in New Mexico, a flat stretch of desert northwest of Socorro and far from major cities. Each of its 28 antennas, one a spare, is an 82-foot (25-meter) dish, and the railroad tracks in the foreground are how they move: transporters carry them along four rails as the array stretches its arms from two-thirds of a mile to 23 miles over 16 months. The array was formally dedicated in 1980.