Paranal nights

Gaze up at the night sky from ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile, and you will be greeted with a stunning view like this one. Flecks of blue, orange, red; each a different star, galaxy, nebula, or more, together forming a sparkling sky overhead. Astronomers peer at this beautiful backdrop, trying to unravel the mysteries of the Universe.

To do this, they use telescopes like the ones shown here, the VLT Auxiliary Telescopes. This image shows three of the four moveable units that feed light into the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, the world's most advanced optical instrument. Combining to form one larger telescope, they are greater than the sum of their parts: they reveal details that would be visible with a telescope as large as the distance between them.

Källa:

Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO

Om bilden

ID:potw1401a
Typ:Foto
Publiceringsdatum:6 januari 2014 10:00
Storlek:4000 x 2605 px

Om objektet


Bildformat

Originalstorlek
13,2 MB
Stor jpeg
2,6 MB
Skärmstor jpeg
254,4 kB

Zoombar


Skrivbordsunderlägg

1024x768
323,7 kB
1280x1024
522,5 kB
1600x1200
736,4 kB
1920x1200
867,9 kB
2048x1536
1,1 MB