Cosmic arc

The Milky Way, our own galaxy, stretches across the sky over Paranal, the site of ESO's VLT. Paranal has about 300 clear nights per year, which, combined with the VLT's state-of-the-art technology, allows astronomers to observe the Universe in remarkable detail. An individual unit telescope at the VLT can see objects four billion times fainter than what can be seen with the unaided eye, while combining the telescopes allows astronomers to see details up to 16 times finer than can be discerned with the individual telescopes.