Posted 09.07.2010 at 11:57 am
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The VLT's Yepun Instrument Lights Up the Sky
ESO/Y. Beletsky
We are not at war with an alien race from the center of the Milky Way, but if we were, this is exactly what we would want it to look like. Snapped at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory -- home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) array -- the photo depicts the VLT's Laser Guide Star facility in action.
The laser beam is part of the VLT's adaptive optics system, which corrects for distortions caused by Earth's atmosphere so the land-based optics system can get clear shots of the cosmos. In this case, the color of the laser is precisely tuned to excite a band of sodium atoms found in an upper layer of the atmosphere some 56 miles up. Those glowing atoms create a kind of synthetic reference star in the upper atmosphere that the VLT can use to calibrate itself.
The image above was snapped by the ESO's photo ambassador Yuri Beletsky in mid-August, as astronomers prepared to peer deep into the Milky Way's center to observe the supermassive black hole that resides there.
[ESO]
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Orange laser... soo... cool...
Looks like an argon laser.
Massive? Wait till they fire back ....
Humans, ever preposterous!
what if we accidentally hit some space traveler and they come down and sue us? then what? they should aim that lazer at george bush for ruining the country and making us go broke.
i wonder what type of laser they are using. scottie, argons generally output mainly blue/green waveleinghts, namely and most common being 488nm. possibly a krypton or a copper vapor?
i can remember the radio telescope in PR shooting the same exact laser about 8 years ago the only difference was that it was green i never got to know what it was for...
Is the laser going to point straight into the blackhole?
If it is suppose to, wouldn't the light aura pull into the blackhole and dissapear as soon as it reaches it? Wouldn't that cause us not to be able to see the blackhole at all?
Or would the laser light wrap around the blackhole and reveal it by doing so?
drinny26 - Republicans were actually reducing the deficit until Democrats took control of congress in 2006. Obama has increased the national debt by 3 trillion dollars in 18 months.
@ aerosphere
The laser is not going into the blackhole. Lasers still only travel at c, so it would take many many years for it to reach the center of our galaxy. The article clearly states what the laser is use for.
looks like a jedi with excessive force