In a series of images that look like they were stolen from a science fiction film, four powerful laser blasts from the Very Large Telescope dome (Very Large Telescope) are seen at the European Southern Paranal Observatory in Chile. These lasers, however, are not part of the Star Wars super-weapon. They actually represent advanced astronomy, providing astronomers with an unprecedented primeval view of the cosmos.
On April 26, Paranal saw the “first light” from the Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF - Four Star Laser Guide). This is the most powerful system of adaptive optics on the planet. Adaptive optics are used for ground-based observatories that conduct observations through the atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere is able to cloud our view of the universe. Dynamic atmospheric processes can create turbulence and turbidity in the upper atmosphere. To compensate for this blurring effect, lasers are used to create artificial “reference stars” in the upper atmosphere. In the case of the new MBT adaptive optics system, four 22W laser beams are fired from the dome. When sodium atoms collide in the upper atmosphere, these atoms glow, creating fake stars. These points of light are then used by a telescope to directly measure the amount of turbulence in the upper atmosphere. This information is fed back to the automated systems on the telescope to manipulate the primary mirror, compensating for atmospheric noise. By removing atmospheric noise, the observatory will get a clearer and more accurate picture of distant stars and galaxies.
How steep science can be, these images will show:
Finishing on this interesting and insane note, I will only add that I will visit the sites of the European Southern Observatory in May as part of the #MeetESO event, where members of the space media community were invited to look at the observatories. This includes the Paranal and Atakam large millimeter-wave antenna array (ALMA). I will post updates on V-kosmose.com!
