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A virtual 100-metre telescope

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Light collected by three VLT Auxiliary Telescopes, and combined using the technique of interferometry, provides astronomers with vision as sharp as that from a giant telescope with a diameter equal to the largest separation between the telescopes used. To obtain the image of T Leporis using data from the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, astronomers used the four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes in different configurations to mimic a telescope almost 100 metres in diameter, as represented schematically on this artist’s impression of the Paranal platform.

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