Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known
Founder: Joseph Barone
Contributors: crookedindifference, bumerangue, propagandery, rocketmagic, rostenbach
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Yepun’s Laser and the Magellanic Clouds
This spectacular image shows Yepun, the fourth 8.2-metre Unit Telescope of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) facility, launching a powerful yellow laser beam into the sky. The beam creates a glowing spot — an artificial star — in the Earth’s atmosphere by exciting a layer of sodium atoms at an altitude of 90 km. This Laser Guide Star (LGS) is part of the VLT’s adaptive optics system. The light coming back from the artificial star is used as a reference to control the deformable mirrors and remove the effects of atmospheric distortions, producing astronomical images almost as sharp as if the telescope were in space.
Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi/TWAN
Yepun’s Laser and the Magellanic Clouds This spectacular image shows Yepun, the fourth 8.2-metre Unit Telescope of ESO’s...
Dear Koko…
FIRE THE UNIVERSAL DESTRUCTO BEAM!!
Yepun’s Laser and the Magellanic Clouds This spectacular image shows Yepun, the fourth 8.2-metre Unit Telescope of ESO’s...