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Very Large Telescope firing laser beams at night
Very Large Telescope (VLT) firing laser beams at night. Four lasers beam out from one of the Unit Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), guiding your eyes to the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds beneath them. The Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) shines four 22-watt laser beams into the sky to create artificial guide stars by making sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere glow so that they look just like real stars. The artificial stars allow the adaptive optics systems to compensate for the blurring caused by the Earth's atmosphere, so that the telescope can create sharp images., by ESO/PETR HORALEK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
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