La luce notturna del VLT
Quest’immagine, ripresa dall’ambasciatore fotografo di ESO Petr Horálek, cattura il momento in cui Yepun (UT4), una delle quattro unità di 8,2 metri che compone il Very Large Telescope (VLT) di ESO, spara un raggio laser verso il cielo notturno sopra l’osservatorio Paranal di ESO in Cile.
Il laser mostrato in quest’immagine gioca il ruolo di una stella artificiale, chiamato Laser Guide Star, ed è usato per aiutare gli astronomi a correggere i disturbi dell’atmosfera terrestre sulla qualità delle immagini. Quando si osserva un pezzo di cielo, gli astronomi puntano il laser e creano una stella artificiale vicina agli oggetti che desiderano osservare e misurano le piccole fluttuazioni nell’immagine. Il sistema di ottica adattiva del VLT può allora usare questa stella artificiale di riferimento per correggere i cambiamenti e le distorsioni nell’atmosfera e produrre l’immagine più nitida possibile per le osservazioni principali.
La grande nube di Magellano (in inglese Large Magellanic Cloud, LMC) incombe sopra Yepun: è una galassia spirale barrata che orbita attorno alla Via lattea. Un debole bagliore biancastro indica la posizione di una vecchia popolazione di stelle all’interno del LMC, mentre le tonalità iridescenti di magenta e blu indicano giovani incubatrici stellari.
LMC, e anche il suo piccolo omonimo, la Piccola Nube di Magellano, sono stati studiati molte volte dai telescopi di ESO. I suoi numerosi ambiti d’interesse, come le sue nebulose (eso0332) e i suoi amassi di stelle (eso1133) sono visibili in dettaglio grazie alla sua vicinanza e forniscono agli astronomi amatoriali e professionisti bersagli di osservazione mozzafiato.
Crediti:P. Horálek/ESO
A proposito dell'immagine
Identificazione: | potw1736a |
Lingua: | it |
Tipo: | Fotografico |
Data di pubblicazione: | Lunedì 04 Settembre 2017 06:00 |
Dimensione: | 10874 x 10261 px |
A proposito delll'oggetto
Nome: | Very Large Telescope |
Tipo: | Milky Way |
Formati delle immagini
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