Laser and star trails

This dramatic image shows the breathtaking skies over Paranal from the unique vantage point inside Unit Telescope 4 (Yepun) of ESO's Very Large Telescope. The image is a composite of shots captured over time, which creates some striking features; the starry sky appears to spin slowly over time due to Earth's rotation on its axis, creating the arcs of light, which are known as star trails. The laser going up from Yepun creates an artificial guide star as part of the adaptive optics system, state-of-the-art technology which corrects the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere to produce sharper images.