Very Large Telescope

Uncommon card · No. 147560

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with a primary mirror that measures 8.2 metres (27 ft) in diameter. These optical telescopes, named Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun (all words for astronomical objects in the Mapuche language), are generally used separately but can be combined to achieve a very high angular resolution. The VLT array is also complemented by four movable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) with 1.8-metre (5.9 ft) apertures. The VLT is capable of observing both visible and infrared wavelengths. Each individual telescope can detect objects that are roughly four billion times fainter than what can be seen with the naked eye. When all the telescopes are combined, the facility can achieve an angular resolution of approximately 0.002 arcseconds. In single telescope mode, the angular...

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