Man-made Star Shines in the Southern Sky

European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomers have been able to create an "artificial star", 90 km high in the atmosphere, using a laser beam. This "star" can be put at any point in the sky, and it enables the adaptive optics of the VLT telescope to be used throughout the visible sky. Until now, adaptive optics required the light of a strong natural star as a reference - as of now, the artificial star will take this over. The new technology therefore enlarges the field of vision of the most powerful telescope on Earth, to hitherto inaccessible regions.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ESO
• VLT
• laser
• guide
• star
• adaptive
• optics

[Blackstar84]

wouldnt it be much easier to just use hubble telescope?

[BrunoTheQuestionable]

HST time is in great demand.

The bigger mirrors in ground based telescopes make them better for observing faint objects.

Specialised instruments can easily be fitted to ground telescopes for specific experiments.

[johnsmdm]

I thought these telescopes were supposed to show the lunar rovers!

[BrunoTheQuestionable]

The VLT may just about be able to resolve a lunar rover when its telescopes are used together in interferometer mode. This mode isn't fully functional yet, and the telescopes are currently being used independently.

[SupremeSonofVenus]

Their using it for that Maitreya freak.

[murf69]

that is FUCKING awesome...

[iminyourbasement]

@lXlNismo11lXl i know that i just figured in the photos it was at least 25 watts, it was probably the camera exposure that made it appear brighter.

[lXlNismo11lXl]

@iminyourbasement For A Laser Of This Wavelength, That's Is A Lot. This Laser Is Very Likely DPSS, So It Needs Much More Than 4W Input Of IR To Produce The Orange Wavelength (likely 593nm).

[jsinc1785]

@Blackstar84 It's easier , but much more costly to repair due to having to send someone in to space to repair it.

[3tangle3]

@TheTrollKing123 not all stars...some become colder brown dwarfs that just mull about for a long time ....not giving off hardly any light

[robutta100]

what an age we live in

[iminyourbasement]

@Basard100 it appears to be an orange laser so the pump diode most likely draws thousands of watts in order to reach the orange wavelength. tiny orange lasers only having a 100 milliwatt output need 10 watts so go figure.

[iminyourbasement]

@TheChrisJohnny maybe its because i have never witnessed a 4 watt laser in person, technicaly speaking its a class 4 laser so it can do severe damage. but on a scale of all the other lasers on earth its not that powerfull. i was just saying ive seen photos of these setups and expected it to be a 100 watt laser.

[TheChrisJohnny]

@iminyourbasement

4 watts for a laser is actually quite a lot. A typical powerful laser pointer might be of the order of 500mW. Also, given that the guide laser is 50cm in diameter, it's a significant amount of light power.

[iminyourbasement]

thats only 4 watts?

[Forixx777]

this is the fake star you will see from maitreya to think he is Christ this is just my opinion but i think it will be fact