Very Large Telescope. Housing of one of the four telescopes at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro Paranal in Chile. The VLT comprises four me

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Very Large Telescope. Housing of one of the four telescopes at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro Paranal in Chile. The VLT comprises four metre mirror telescopes (Antu, Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun). The images from each are combined by interferometry, giving an image equal to that obtained by one 16 metre diameter mirror. This makes the VLT one of the most powerful telescopes in the world. The mirrors are flexible, and are constantly adjusted by computers to compensate for errors. Cerro Paranal has an altitude of 2600 metres and is situated in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. This gives the site ideal viewing conditions.

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Size: 5106px × 3453px
Photo credit: © JOHN K. DAVIES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: altitude, american, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysics, cerro, chile, chilean, eso, european, high, interferometry, large, mountaintop, observatory, optical, paranal, south, southern, sunset, telescope, vlt