¡Ninguna cúpula resultó dañada!
No se preocupen, no se han hecho agujeros en la cúpula: ¡el láser está destinado a perforar el cielo!
La Imagen de la Semana de hoy muestra una prueba de un nuevo láser del Very Large Telescope (VLT) de ESO. Ubicado en el desierto de Atacama, en Chile, el VLT en realidad tiene cuatro Unidades de Telescopio (UT) de 8,2 metros como la de esta imagen. Usando interferometría, la comunidad astronómica puede hacer que los UT trabajen en equipo para crear un telescopio virtual, el Interferómetro VLT o VLTI, ¡con un diámetro máximo de 130 metros! GRAVITY es uno de los instrumentos que puede hacerlo, permitiendo ver detalles muy pequeños. Sin embargo, este límite se verá aún más ampliado con la actualización GRAVITY+ en curso.
Anteriormente, solo una de las UT tenía láseres, pero las nuevas mejoras incluyen la instalación de láseres adicionales en todas las UT, como el que se muestra en esta imagen. Estos láseres se utilizan para crear una estrella artificial en la atmósfera terrestre para medir la turbulencia del aire y corregirla con un moderno sistema de óptica adaptativa. Esto es clave para combinar con precisión la luz de todos los telescopios. Hasta ahora, GRAVITY dependía de estrellas naturales brillantes para hacer este trabajo, pero encontrar las estrellas con el brillo adecuado junto al objeto astronómico que uno quiere estudiar no siempre es factible. Tener láseres en todas las UT soluciona este problema, lo que permite al VLTI observar objetos débiles en un área más grande del cielo que antes.
Esto abre la puerta a objetos aún más débiles y distantes, además de lograr un mayor contraste para las fuentes más brillantes y cercanas. Entre otras cosas, la actualización GRAVITY+ permitirá a la comunidad astronómica estudiar las atmósferas de los exoplanetas, pesar los agujeros negros supermasivos distantes que hay en otras galaxias y probar los efectos de la Relatividad General cerca del agujero negro presente en el centro de la Vía Láctea. Esperamos con ansia la próxima primera luz de todos los láseres con el VLTI y los misterios que esta actualización revelará a medida que podamos mirar, de manera más profunda y con mayor detalle, en las infinitas extensiones de nuestro universo.
Crédito:A. Berdeu/ESO
Sobre la imagen
| Identificador: | potw2538a |
| Idioma: | es-cl |
| Tipo: | Fotográfico |
| Fecha de publicación: | 22 de Septiembre de 2025 a las 06:00 |
| Tamaño: | 11808 x 8856 px |
Sobre el objeto
| Nombre: | Very Large Telescope |
| Tipo: | Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : Telescope |
Formatos de imagen
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