October – Artist’s rendering of the Extremely Large Telescope

The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is situated on Cerro Armazones in the Chilean desert, near ESO’s Paranal Observatory. Currently under construction, the ELT’s 39-metre diameter mirror will be the world’s biggest eye on the sky, allowing the detailed study of exoplanets, the first objects in the Universe, supermassive black holes, and the nature and distribution of dark matter and dark energy. Here, an artist’s rendering shows how the telescope’s laser guide system will look in action when it begins observing in 2024.