The road to Paranal

The landscape surrounding ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile is almost reminiscent of an alien world. The tiny silver shapes on the distant Cerro Paranal mountain are the VLT's Unit Telescopes (UTs) and smaller Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs). This image is taken from the nearby mountain that is home to another of ESO's facilities, the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA).