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Measuring the Blur: Because the telescope "knows" exactly what that laser star should look like (a perfect point of light), it can measure how the atmosphere is currently distorting it.
The Shape-Shifting Mirror: This data is sent to a deformable mirror inside the telescope. This mirror has hundreds of tiny actuators behind it that adjust its shape thousands of times per second to perfectly cancel out the atmospheric turbulence.
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How the "tuning" works:
The VLT uses a technology called Adaptive Optics to fix this in real-time:
Creating the Reference: The lasers are fired 90 kilometers up into a layer of the atmosphere rich in sodium atoms. The laser light excites these atoms, making them glow and creating an "artificial star" exactly where the telescope is looking.
You can think of those lasers as the "tuning fork" for the telescope's optical system.
Even in a place as clear as the Atacama, our atmosphere isn't perfectly still. Pockets of warm and cool air act like moving lenses, bending light and causing that "twinkling" effect we see in stars. While it's pretty for us, it’s a nightmare for astronomers because it blurs the fine details of distant galaxies.
Sodium Milky Way
This scene was captured at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Cerro Paranal, in Chile’s Atacama desert, under exceptionally pure observing conditions where the boundary between Earth and sky feels almost seamless. Situated at 2,635 metres above sea level, the site benefits from extremely dry conditions, stable atmospheric layers and minimal light pollution, resulting in more than 300 clear nights each year.
Julien Looten
A fun detail in that photo of the two Lego telescope models in my previous post: that's the Very Large Telescope sitting on the right Nasmyth instrument platform of the Extremely Large Telescope. The two models are built to approximately the same scale, a VLT Unit Telescope (without its dome) really would fit on the instrument platform of the ELT, the jump in scale from the current generation of telescopes to the next is just that big.
In 2024 I was lucky enough to be able to photograph the ELT from the VLT and vice versa, enabling me to make a size comparison of my own: https://aus.social/@spacelizard/113185149611957251
Attached: 1 image I edited a couple of my own photos into a size comparison of ESO's Very Large Telescope(s) and Extremely Large Telescope. The top is the VLT photographed from the ELT (in the middle of the day) and the bottom photo is the ELT photographed from the VLT (at sunset). Same distance (20 km), same camera, same lens, so the scale of the two photos should be identical. The source photos (and more) can be found here: https://drhotdog.smugmug.com/Astronomy-and-Observatories/Paranal-2024/Landscapes-with-telescopes Edit: I removed the ELT scale bar because of a couple of issues. First, because the photo of the ELT was taken from a lower altitude part of the ELT building is hidden behind the near side of the flattened mountaintop. Second, the ELT dome doors have not yet been installed so the current structure is, I think, less than 80 metres tall. #Astrodon #Astronomy #ESO #ELT #VLT #Paranal
If you're more into Lego than 3D printing @esoastronomy still has you covered. There are parts lists and assembly instructions for Lego models of both the Extremely Large Telescope and the Very Large Telescope, https://www.eso.org/public/australia/announcements/ann16013/?lang
E se o Expresso Tiradentes se tornasse um VLT?
Inspirado no VLT elevado de Foshan, na China, fiz uma análise sobre a possibilidade de o Expresso Tiradentes, hoje um BRT, se converter em um VLT.
Você já utilizou o “Fura Fila”? O que acha da proposta? Comente ⬇️
#brt #vlt #zonalestesp #saopaulo #metro #cptm #mobilidade #cidadania #transportepúblico
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtYXdYsNFlA
#ESO:
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Erstes Licht für PoET: Ein strahlender Auftakt für die Exoplanetenforschung
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".. Paranal Solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET), installiert am Paranal d. . ESO in Chile, hat .. seine ersten Beobachtungen durchgeführt. .. Teleskop wird in Kombination mit .. ESPRESSO-Instrument .. eingesetzt, um d. Sonne detailliert zu untersuchen. .. "
https://www.eso.org/public/germany/news/eso2605/
9.4.2026
#Astronomie #Chile #ESPRESSO #Exoplanet #FirstLight #Helligkeitsschwankung #Italien #Paranal #PoET #Portugal #Teleskop #VLT
Das Paranal Solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET), installiert am Paranal der Europäischen Südsternwarte (ESO) in Chile, hat den Betrieb aufgenommen und seine ersten Beobachtungen durchgeführt. Das Teleskop wird in Kombination mit dem ESPRESSO-Instrument der ESO eingesetzt, um die Sonne detailliert zu untersuchen. PoET ist als „Sonnenteleskop für Planetenjäger*innen“ konzipiert und soll erforschen, wie Helligkeitsschwankungen sonnenähnlicher Sterne die Signale umkreisender Planeten maskieren können. Diese Erkenntnisse sind essenziell, um die Präzision bei der Suche nach fernen Welten außerhalb unseres Sonnensystems maßgeblich zu erhöhen.
#MPG:
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Seltener Nachweis zweier Protoplaneten
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".. zwei Protoplaneten im jungen Sternsystem WISPIT 2 nachgewiesen – Planeten, die sich im Prozess ihrer Entstehung befinden. Die Entdeckung zweier Planeten-Embryos um einen Stern gelang unter mehr als 6000 Exoplaneten bisher erst in einem weiteren System: PDS-70."
https://www.mpg.de/26291657/0323-ext0-news20260324-151510-x
27.3.2026
#Astronomie #ESO #Exoplanet #Interferometrie #PDS70 #Planetenentstehung #Protoplanet #VLT #VLTI #WISPIT2 #WISPIT2c
Zwei Protoplaneten im jungen Sternsystem WISPIT 2 wurden nachgewiesen, was einen seltenen Einblick in die Planetenentstehung bietet. Mit dem GRAVITY-Instrument am VLT Interferometer gelang der Nachweis des neuen Protoplaneten WISPIT 2c, der Kohlenmonoxid in seiner Atmosphäre aufweist. Dies unterstützt die Erkenntnis, dass Planetensysteme parallel entstehen.
earthling
Anthony Horton
fps3000
RTN
idw