YOLA 07B: Stars in their Eyes - p1

Noun a thick covering
carpet
It is dawn in the Andes. A grimy carpet of red dust stretches over rolling featureless hills towards a horizon dominated by the icy cone of Chile's Licancabur volcano.
Adjective small and weak
puny
There are no trees, no bushes, not even a blade of grass in this lifeless landscape. Even the atmosphere is alien. At 5,000 metres above the sea, oxygen levels are puny.
Adjective extremely dry
arid
Move suddenly, and bright spots blur your vision before you start to stagger and retch. This is Chajnantor, the most inhospitable portion of Chile's Atacama desert, and one of the world's most arid places.
Adjective very small or unimportant
negligible
The annual rainfall here is negligible - a few drops of moisture scattered yearly on desiccated, empty land. You wouldn't last a day unprotected in this dead zone.
Adjective unfavorable to life or growth
hostile
Chajnantor is hostile, threatening, and in a few years is destined to provide astronomers with a new home.
Noun an electromagnetic wave with a 0.001–0.3 m wavelength, shorter than a normal radio wave
microwave
It sounds extraordinary. Nevertheless, the European Southern Observatory has committed itself to begin building an array of giant microwave receivers on Chajnantor.
Noun a dark, hidden place or part
recesses
When completed, these machines will allow the world's astronomers to view the birth of thousands of planetary systems in the deepest recesses of our galaxy.
Verb to hide or cover something
obscured
The planetary systems are in the deepest recesses of our galaxy and probe the early universe's 'Dark Ages', when dust obscured the cosmos and the first stars flickered into existence. Unique knowledge is expected to flow from
Verb to stretch out over a distance
Extending
Each Alma receiver will consist of a transportable structure supporting a dish measuring 10 metres in diameter. Extending outwards from the smooth metal surface of the dish will be 3 support arms that hold a sub-reflector.