2026-04-20 07:00 UTC
This isn't a scene from Star Wars.
What you're looking at is the Tarantual Nebula, and those beams come from the lasers installed on the telescopes of our Very Large Telescope Interferometer in #Chile. They create artificial stars 90 km above the ground to correct atmospheric turbulence, allowing the VLTI to observe faint targets.
But why are four telescopes observing the same target? Find out: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2616a/
📷 A. Berdeu/ESO
#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science
Replies (5)
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@spacelizard@aus.social 2026-04-20 07:07
@esoastronomy
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@jqmcd@sfba.social 2026-04-20 08:11
@esoastronomy Of course that’s not Star Wars… anyone can see that’s Star TREK!
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@mespique@mastodon.social 2026-04-20 08:51
@esoastronomy Alas! I liked the Tarantula Nebula, and now it's gone.
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@ottaross@mastodon.social 2026-04-20 13:54
@esoastronomy Tarantula Nebula*: They're firing on us! Launch photon torpedoes! *in how ever many years it takes for the laser light to reach them.
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@wolf480pl@mstdn.io 2026-04-20 17:40
@esoastronomy so cool! even the sodium is getting excited!