By continuing to use this website, you are giving consent to our use of cookies.
For more information on how ESO uses data and how you can disable cookies, please view our privacy policy.

Big and bigger

A small crowd gathers by the telescopes to see the night in at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. For most, sunset marks the end of a working day — a time for rest. But not here; nighttime is when the real work is done, with a clear night’s sky as the workplace.

The crowd looks tiny, dwarfed by the telescopes to their left. These domes house the four 1.8-metre-diameter Auxiliary Telescopes that are part of the Very Large Telescope array (VLT). But the real giant of the picture is at the far left; if the Auxiliary Telescopes make the crowd look small, then the VLT Unit Telescope makes them look like ants. The VLT has four 8.2-metre telescopes like this, some of the largest telescopes on the planet.

But if you think that’s big, wait for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), set for first light in the early 2020s. Its mirror will be a whopping 39 metres in diameter! As we look to the future, ESO will be bringing the world bigger and better eyes on the sky.

Credit:

ESO/C. Malin

About the Image

Id:potw1420a
Type:Photographic
Release date:19 May 2014, 10:00
Size:4256 x 2832 px

About the Object

Name:Cerro Paranal, Very Large Telescope
Type:Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : Facility
Category:Paranal

Image Formats

Large JPEG
1.7 MB
Screensize JPEG
185.6 KB

Zoomable


Wallpapers

1024x768
228.6 KB
1280x1024
344.1 KB
1600x1200
475.9 KB
1920x1200
538.4 KB
2048x1536
701.5 KB