- The ELT telescope extended
- He took a picture of something unprecedented in the distant universe
The world’s largest optical telescope, the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope), may not be as well-known as the Webb Space Telescope, but that doesn’t mean it’s inferior in capabilities. The proof is a fantastic image of the nebula IC 2944, which is nicknamed the Running Chicken, due to the bird-like shape that some observers see in its brightest parts.
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Breathtaking photos from the VLT
The VLT, standing in Chile’s Atacama desert, pulled out again. The nebula is as big as 25 full moons in the sky, so it wouldn’t fit in a single exposure. That’s why the experts took hundreds of pictures, which they then carefully combined into an impressive mosaic. The result was an unprecedented image of 1.5 billion pixels that shows many regions of the nebula in detail.
The brightest of these is IC 2948, which is the main structure of the nebula, thought by some to be the head of a running chicken. In the center is IC 2944, a majestic and almost columnar vertical structure. Next to it is something completely unrelated to the nebula: the star Lambda Centauri, which lies much closer than the nebula, which is 6,500 light-years away. Separate structures known as Gum 39, 40 and Gum 41 are also visible in the photo.
If you zoom in on the whole image, you’ll see small stars that have just been born from the nebula, as well as Bok spheres, very dark regions of dense gas and dust. The entire photo is too beautiful to describe in words, so see for yourself.
Source: ESO/VPHAS+
The most powerful optical telescope
The ELT’s primary mirror is by far the largest ever fitted to any telescope for both the visible and infrared regions. That is also why it was not possible to make it from a single piece of glass. It therefore consists of 798 hexagonal segments with a diameter of 1.4 meters and a thickness of five centimeters. It has individual parts set up so that they can work together as a single optical surface that collects 20 million times more light than the human eye.
The ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) serves scientists, among other things, in the search for traces of life in space. The special apparatus is located on a 3,000-meter-high mountain located in the middle of the Atacama desert in Chile.
Preview photo source: ESO/VPHAS, source: IFLScience
2023-12-22 13:08:53
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