The four lasers of ESO’s Very Large Telescope piercing the heart of the Milky Way. (F. Millour/ESO via SWNS)
By Dean Murray
A startling picture shows scientists shooting lasers at the Milky Way.
The four beams of the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) are used to excite sodium atoms in the atmosphere to make for better cosmic observations.
The VLT, located in Chile’s Atacama Desert, uses the light emitted by the excited atoms to correct for the effect that our atmosphere has on starlight as it passes through.
ESO described the image Monday, March 17: "The starry night is interrupted by the vertical glow of the zodiacal light, caused by dust grains in the Solar System, so faint that it’s only visible in the darkest skies, such as those of Chile’s Atacama Desert."
Describing the laser process, ESO said: "It’s this advanced system (called “adaptive optics”), combined with the excellent dark conditions of the Atacama desert, that allows the VLT to obtain extremely sharp images of the Universe."
The VLT is a powerful astronomical observatory that captures high-resolution images and spectra of celestial objects, enabling groundbreaking research on exoplanets, galaxies, black holes, and the early universe.
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