European Southern Observatory has advanced observational facilities at three sites in northern Chile - La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor.
Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal has four 8.2m telescopes and four 1.8m telescopes.
These telescopes can work together to form a giant interferometer.
The 8.2m telescopes are mostly used individually but the 1.8m telescopes are available to allow VLTI to operate every night.
The large 8.2 telescopes are named Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, Yepun. Out of four Antu was the first telescope to begin routine observations from 1st April, 1999.
There are many discoveries and scientific firsts by VLT.
1. The accelerating expansion of the universe.
For this discovery Nobel Prize in physics was awarded in 2011. ESO's two observatories also contributed to the discovery and VLT was one of them.
Hubble's observation of red shifted galaxies led to the theory of expanding universe and the observation of Type1a Supernova led to the theory of accelerating expansion of the universe.
2. First image of an extrasolar planet.
3. Tracking of individual stars that are moving around Supermassive Black Hole at the center of Milky Way.
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| The red dot shows the position of VLT on Earth |
Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal has four 8.2m telescopes and four 1.8m telescopes.
These telescopes can work together to form a giant interferometer.
The 8.2m telescopes are mostly used individually but the 1.8m telescopes are available to allow VLTI to operate every night.
The large 8.2 telescopes are named Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, Yepun. Out of four Antu was the first telescope to begin routine observations from 1st April, 1999.
There are many discoveries and scientific firsts by VLT.
1. The accelerating expansion of the universe.
For this discovery Nobel Prize in physics was awarded in 2011. ESO's two observatories also contributed to the discovery and VLT was one of them.
Hubble's observation of red shifted galaxies led to the theory of expanding universe and the observation of Type1a Supernova led to the theory of accelerating expansion of the universe.
2. First image of an extrasolar planet.
3. Tracking of individual stars that are moving around Supermassive Black Hole at the center of Milky Way.
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