Peering into the Universe

One of the Unit Telescopes of ESO's VLT sits under the starry night sky of Paranal. Each Unit Telescope has a main mirror 8.2 metres in diameter, making them some of the largest single-mirror telescopes in the world, and each one can see objects four billion times fainter than what can be seen with the unaided eye. When used in combination they are even more powerful. The VLT is the most productive individual ground-based facility, leading to the publication of an average of more than one peer-reviewed scientific paper per day.