File:Guiding the Milky Way (potw2222a).jpg
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Summary
editDescriptionGuiding the Milky Way (potw2222a).jpg |
English: This picture of the week shows four powerful laser beams leaving Unit Telescope 4, or ‘Yepun’, at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile’s Atacama desert. These form the VLT’s 4 Laser Guide Star Facility, which enables astronomers to take extremely crisp images of the cosmos by employing a technology known as adaptive optics.Using adaptive optics, telescopes are able to correct for the effects of atmospheric turbulence, which causes the “twinkling” and blurring of stars and other objects in the sky. To do this, a deformable mirror reshapes itself up to 1000 times per second based on the observed turbulence. Astronomers measure turbulence by monitoring a bright star in the field of view. If there isn’t a suitable star, they create artificial stars in the Earth’s upper atmosphere using lasers. The lasers in this image have a very specific orange-yellow colour (with a wavelength of 589 nm), exciting sodium atoms about 90 km above ground, causing them to shine like a star.In the backdrop, almost appearing to follow the path of the laser beams, is the familiar band of the Milky Way stretching across the sky. Also visible is a faint green wash in the sky that results from a phenomenon known as airglow, which is light naturally emitted by atoms and molecules in the atmosphere. Airglow is only visible in areas where the sky is dark enough not to be overshadowed by light pollution. |
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Date | 30 May 2022 (upload date) | ||
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Author | ESO/A. Ghizzi Panizza (www.albertoghizzipanizza.com) | ||
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Licensing
editThis media was created by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Their website states: "Unless specifically noted, the images, videos, and music distributed on the public ESO website, along with the texts of press releases, announcements, pictures of the week, blog posts and captions, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided the credit is clear and visible." To the uploader: You must provide a link (URL) to the original file and the authorship information if available. | |
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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current | 15:14, 9 August 2023 | 6,048 × 4,024 (6.91 MB) | OptimusPrimeBot (talk | contribs) | #Spacemedia - Upload of https://cdn.eso.org/images/large/potw2222a.jpg via Commons:Spacemedia |
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Metadata
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Author | Alberto Ghizzi Panizza |
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Copyright holder |
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Credit/Provider | ESO/A. Ghizzi Panizza (www.albertoghizzipanizza.com) |
Source | European Southern Observatory |
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Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 30 May 2022 |
Software used | NIKON Z 6 Ver.01.01 |
File change date and time | 15:01, 15 January 2021 |
Serial number of camera | 6004150 |
Lens used | 0.0 mm f/0.0 |
Date and time of digitizing | 01:38, 29 April 2019 |
Rating (out of 5) | 0 |
Date metadata was last modified | 16:01, 15 January 2021 |
Unique ID of original document | B710454614A07736BAFA6F1945B4120E |
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Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, None, D-85748 Germany |
IIM version | 4 |