A Sharper View Of The Universe
Posted on 29. May, 2010 by Robert in Technology
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ESOcast 13: A sharper view of the Universe with the VLT Interferometer. In principle, the larger a telescopes mirror, the finer the details it can see. Continuing to increase the size of telescope mirrors is not an easy task, so astronomers have come up with a new technology to see even finer details: interferometry. This observational technique combines the light received by two or more telescopes and allows them to act as a single unit with a mirror diameter equivalent to the distance between the telescopes. Engineers designed the VLT so that it can also be used as an interferometer. Along with the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes, four mobile 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) were included in the overall VLT concept to form the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The ATs can move between 30 different stations, and at present, the telescopes can form groups of two or three for interferometry. — Subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com — Imagine looking up at the night sky and seeing details on the surface of a star millions of millions of kilometres away. Imagine having eyesight so keen that you could check out the surroundings of a black hole. Using ESOs Very Large Telescope Interferometer at Paranal, astronomers are now making these fantasies a reality. Each of the four VLT Unit Telescopes has a primary mirror with a diameter of 8.2 metres. Such big mirrors are necessary because they collect more light and …
GGAlice1
29. May, 2010
this needs to be on the moon
BeondaPale
29. May, 2010
imagine if we had an ESO array IN SPACE
prismaticmarcus
29. May, 2010
like i said, imagine a clump of soap bubbles. it contains large areas of nothing surrounded by filmy walls of soap. superclusters of galaxies are arranged the same way i.e. as if they were embedded in the soap walls.
itzahazylife
29. May, 2010
can u please explain that better?..i’m not really grasping what u said about galaxies being arranged in sheets..
prismaticmarcus
29. May, 2010
sheets! you missed sheets! superclusters of galaxies are actually arranged in sheets (or walls) which are like the walls of a group of soap bubbles. so the universe is a giant foam. awesome…
richmantck
29. May, 2010
make more videos
omegavalerius
29. May, 2010
Well there is still work to be done then. That if anything is the one interesting thing about science. The quest never ends
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LU29UN99
29. May, 2010
cool, we can see the Star Trek, Voyager, the Galactic space ship….and Halo3
itzahazylife
29. May, 2010
yeah, it’s amazing to think that reality may be infinitely large..like clusters of planets around a sun make a solar system, then clusters of suns make a galaxy, then there are clusters of galaxies, and clusters of clusters of galaxies, then universes, then clusters of universes..it would be incredible if that was actually the case..just the same pattern forever in each direction.
toolover10
29. May, 2010
The universe, pretty insane thought to think about the possibilities out there. In fact if I think about it for more than a minute or to I can feel my brain starting to fog. We will all be long gone before anybody/anything finds an answer. Maybe the next cycle of humans in another 100,000 thousand years will come a little closer to figuring out “our situation”?
ubergossen
29. May, 2010
Looks like neither of those places exist anymore. Leaps and Bounds merged with Discovery Zone in 1994 and then Discovery Zone went bankrupt in 1996 and was bought by Chuck E. Cheese’s. But Cosmic Adventures is still going strong.
ubergossen
29. May, 2010
Nice, I think Cosmic Adventures had the better name, but Discovery Zone is also pretty cool sounding.
GBart
29. May, 2010
Looks like the US equivalents would be Leaps and Bounds and Discovery Zone, so in that case yes, kind of.
ubergossen
29. May, 2010
Probably not, looks like there was only one of them, I thought it was maybe a chain.
ubergossen
29. May, 2010
Nice, anyone else ever go to Cosmic Adventures? That place was awesome.
verkaserduch
29. May, 2010
BRAVO…
I am looking forward to looking at the screws on International space station… oooorrggg I mean the shape of stars.. 
..
bombaykaizoku
29. May, 2010
@ronpack adaptive optics help some but in the end a long exposure will blur the image.
ronpack
29. May, 2010
@bombaykaizoku
don’t they use a laser to correct that distortion?
dracentsparkle
29. May, 2010
Great sharing*
joethemoproductions
29. May, 2010
Just amazing. I love science.
Pulsar89
29. May, 2010
Yes, but the VLA is a radio telescope, and interferometry is much easier to do in radio waves than visual/IR light. The highest resolution possible with the VLA is about 0.05 arcseconds, while the VLTI can achieve 0.002 arcsec.
bombaykaizoku
29. May, 2010
@omegavalerius the atmosphere distorts images just from variations in temperature and density of the atmosphere in the line of sight of the telescope. The longer the exposure the more blurred out an image becomes from the changing distortion.
logoth80
29. May, 2010
@Shalek
on satelites no, but on a space station sure. on earth not possible due to precission mirrors can be placed/manufactured. remember it will shake all time between far away telescopes, and it cant be digital sygnal, its reflected light
VicTheVicar
29. May, 2010
hurray! that’s my tax money
GrandTheftAuto4Films
29. May, 2010
Take that religion. Feel like killing Darwin still?