Many telescopes make light work

The four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) of ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer, which have been upgraded with the New Adaptive Optics Module for Interferometry (NAOMI). By using state-of-the-art adaptive optics technology, NAOMI has improved the imaging capabilities of the VLTI to unprecedented levels, giving the VLTI’s powerful scientific instruments such as GRAVITY a clearer view of the Universe than ever.

This computer model of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) shows the light from all four ATs being directed through the tunnels underneath the VLT and brought together at the VLTI laboratory. Light from an astronomical object is represented by the curved lines radiating from the upper right of the image.