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63-466: The radio source consists of three components: the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East , the spiral structure Sagittarius A West , and a very bright compact radio source at the center of the spiral, Sagittarius A* (read "A-star"). These three overlap: Sagittarius A East is the largest, West appears off-center within East, and A* is at the center of West. In April 1933, Karl Jansky , considered one of

126-464: A primary mirror that measures 8.2 meters in diameter. These optical telescopes , named Antu , Kueyen , Melipal , and Yepun (all words for astronomical objects in the Mapuche language ), are generally used separately but can be combined to achieve a very high angular resolution . The VLT array is also complemented by four movable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) with 1.8-meter apertures. The VLT

189-467: A surface brightness high enough to be observed in the mid-infrared, and objects must be at several thousands of degrees Celsius for near-infrared observations using the VLTI. This includes most of the stars in the solar neighborhood and many extragalactic objects such as bright active galactic nuclei , but this sensitivity limit rules out interferometric observations of most solar-system objects. Although

252-524: A 1.1 metre lightweight beryllium secondary mirror. A flat tertiary mirror diverts the light to one of two instruments at the f/15 Nasmyth foci on either side, with a system focal length of 120 m, or the tertiary tilts aside to allow light through the primary mirror central hole to a third instrument at the Cassegrain focus. This allows switching between any of the three instruments within 5 minutes, to match observing conditions. Additional mirrors can send

315-589: A broken pump in a giant washing machine and resolving a rigging issue. The procedure is part of routine scheduled maintenance. The area surrounding the Very Large Telescope was featured in the 2008 film Quantum of Solace . The ESO Hotel , the Residencia, served as a backdrop for part of the James Bond movie. Producer Michael G. Wilson said: "The Residencia of Paranal Observatory caught

378-435: A critical mass and undergoes a thermonuclear explosion . In either case, the resulting supernova explosion expels much or all of the stellar material with velocities as much as 10% the speed of light (or approximately 30,000 km/s) and a strong shock wave forms ahead of the ejecta. That heats the upstream plasma up to temperatures well above millions of K. The shock continuously slows down over time as it sweeps up

441-399: A discrete and bright "Sagittarius-Scorpius" radio source, which after further observation with the 80-foot (24-metre) CSIRO radio telescope at Dover Heights was identified in a letter to Nature as the probable Galactic Center. The name Sagittarius A was first used in 1954 by John D. Kraus , Hsien-Ching Ko, and Sean Matt when they included the object in the list of radio sources found with

504-527: A large set of instruments permitting observations to be performed from the near-ultraviolet to the mid-infrared (i.e. a large fraction of the light wavelengths accessible from the surface of the Earth ), with the full range of techniques including high-resolution spectroscopy, multi-object spectroscopy , imaging, and high-resolution imaging. In particular, the VLT has several adaptive optics systems, which correct for

567-449: A standard supernova explosion to create a structure of this size and energy. It is conjectured that Sgr A East is the remnant of the explosion of a star that was gravitationally compressed as it made a close approach to the central black hole . Sgr A West has the appearance of a three-arm spiral, from the point of view of the Earth. For this reason, it is also known as the "Minispiral". This appearance and nickname are misleading, though:

630-404: A standard supernova are called hypernova remnants , after the high-energy hypernova explosion that is assumed to have created them. Supernova remnants are considered the major source of galactic cosmic rays . The connection between cosmic rays and supernovas was first suggested by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1934. Vitaly Ginzburg and Sergei Syrovatskii in 1964 remarked that if

693-408: Is capable of observing both visible and infrared wavelengths . Each individual telescope can detect objects that are roughly four billion times fainter than what can be seen with the naked eye . When all the telescopes are combined, the facility can achieve an angular resolution of approximately 0.002 arcsecond. In single telescope mode, the angular resolution is about 0.05 arcseconds. The VLT

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756-471: Is done using 1.8 meter Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs), which are dedicated to full-time interferometric measurements. The first observations using a pair of ATs were conducted in February 2005, and all the four ATs have now been commissioned. For interferometric observations on the brightest objects, there is little benefit in using 8 meter telescopes rather than 1.8 meter telescopes. The first two instruments at

819-447: Is introduced, the limiting magnitude of the VLTI is expected to improve by a factor of almost 1000, reaching a magnitude of about 14. This is similar to what is expected for other fringe tracking interferometers. In spectroscopic mode, the VLTI can currently reach a magnitude of 1.5. The VLTI can work in a fully integrated way, so that interferometric observations are actually quite simple to prepare and execute. The VLTI has become worldwide

882-560: Is one of the most productive facilities for astronomy, second only to the Hubble Space Telescope in terms of the number of scientific papers produced from facilities operating at visible wavelengths. Some of the pioneering observations made using the VLT include the first direct image of an exoplanet , the tracking of stars orbiting around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way , and observations of

945-583: Is still unclear whether supernova remnants accelerate cosmic rays up to PeV energies. The future telescope CTA will help to answer this question. Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope ( VLT ) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory , located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile . It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with

1008-574: Is the gravitational redshift . In fact, the observation has been conducted for over 26 years with the SINFONI and NACO adaptive optics instruments in the VLT while the new approach in 2018 also used the beam-combiner instrument GRAVITY. The Galactic Centre team at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) used these observations to reveal these effects for the first time. Other discoveries with VLT's signature include

1071-569: Is the capital to write about the implications of these names. It drew many entries dealing with the cultural heritage of ESO's host country. The winning essay was submitted by 17-year-old Jorssy Albanez Castilla from Chuquicamata near the city of Calama . She received the prize, an amateur telescope, during the inauguration of the Paranal site. Unit Telescopes 1–4 are since known as Antu (Sun), Kueyen (Moon), Melipal ( Southern Cross ), and Yepun (Evening Star), respectively. Originally there

1134-626: The GRAVITY instrument on their Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), announced the first direct detection of an exoplanet , HR 8799 e , using optical interferometry . One of the large mirrors of the telescopes was the subject of an episode of the National Geographic Channel 's reality series World's Toughest Fixes , where a crew of engineers removed and transported the mirror to be cleaned and re-coated with aluminium . The job required battling strong winds, fixing

1197-574: The Ohio State University radio telescope at 250 MHz. As was common practice at the time, sources were named by constellation with capital letters in order of brightness within each constellation, with A denoting the brightest radio source within the constellation. This feature is approximately 25 light-years in width and has the attributes of a supernova remnant from an explosive event that occurred between 35,000 and 100,000 YBP. However, it would take 50 to 100 times more energy than

1260-403: The interstellar medium . This process, known as the "Second Order Fermi Mechanism ", increases particle energy during head-on collisions, resulting in a steady gain in energy. A later model to produce Fermi Acceleration was generated by a powerful shock front moving through space. Particles that repeatedly cross the front of the shock can gain significant increases in energy. This became known as

1323-523: The "First Order Fermi Mechanism". Supernova remnants can provide the energetic shock fronts required to generate ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Observation of the SN 1006 remnant in the X-ray has shown synchrotron emission consistent with it being a source of cosmic rays. However, for energies higher than about 10 eV a different mechanism is required as supernova remnants cannot provide sufficient energy. It

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1386-610: The East and can be detected as a dim extended source. The Western Arc (outside the field of view of the image shown in the right) is interpreted as the ionized inner surface of the CND. The Eastern Arm and the Bar seem to be two additional large clouds similar to the Northern Arm, although they do not share the same orbital plane . They have been estimated to amount for about 20 solar masses each. On top of these large scale structures (of

1449-476: The Sagittarius A* region in 2014 and managed to do so without disappearing beyond the event horizon , as theorists predicted would happen. Rather, it disintegrated, suggesting that G2 and a previous gas cloud, G1, were star remnants with larger gravitational fields than gas clouds. In September 2019, scientists found that Sagittarius A* had been consuming nearby matter at a much faster rate than usual over

1512-581: The UTs are 8.2 meters in diameter but, in practice, the pupil of the telescopes is defined by their secondary mirrors, effectively reducing the usable diameter to 8.0 meters at the Nasmyth focus and 8.1 meters at the Cassegrain focus . The 8.2 m-diameter telescopes are housed in compact, thermally controlled buildings, which rotate synchronously with the telescopes. This design minimises any adverse effects on

1575-573: The UTs started operating in May 1998 and was offered to the astronomical community on 1 April 1999. The other telescopes became operational in 1999 and 2000, enabling multi-telescope VLT capability. Four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) have been added to the VLTI to make it available when the UTs are being used for other projects. These ATs were installed and became operational between 2004 and 2007. The VLT's 8.2-meter telescopes were originally designed to operate in three modes: The UTs are equipped with

1638-418: The VLTI lab, along with ESPRESSO fed via fibre-optics (not interferometric). From 2014 to 2020 it underwent a major upgrade to CRIRES+ to provide ten times larger simultaneous wavelength coverage. A new detector focal plane array of three Hawaii 2RG detectors with a 5.3 μm cut-off wavelength replaced the existing detectors, a new spectropolarimetric unit is added, and the calibration system is enhanced. One of

1701-496: The VLTI were VINCI (a test instrument used to set up the system, now decommissioned) and MIDI, which only allow two telescopes to be used at any one time. With the installation of the three-telescope AMBER closure-phase instrument in 2005, the first imaging observations from the VLTI are expected soon. Deployment of the Phase Referenced Imaging and Microarcsecond Astrometry (PRIMA) instrument started 2008 with

1764-441: The afterglow of the furthest known gamma-ray burst . The VLT consists of an arrangement of four large (8.2 metre diameter) telescopes (called Unit Telescopes or UTs) with optical elements that can combine them into an astronomical interferometer (VLTI), which is used to resolve small objects. The interferometer also includes a set of four 1.8 meter diameter movable telescopes dedicated to interferometric observations. The first of

1827-573: The aim to allow phase-referenced measurements in either an astrometric two-beam mode or as a fringe-tracker successor to VINCI, operated concurrent with one of the other instruments. After falling drastically behind schedule and failing to meet some specifications, in December 2004 the VLT Interferometer became the target of a second ESO "recovery plan". This involves additional effort concentrated on improvements to fringe tracking and

1890-578: The ambient medium, but it can expand over hundreds or thousands of years and over tens of parsecs before its speed falls below the local sound speed. One of the best observed young supernova remnants was formed by SN 1987A , a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud that was observed in February 1987. Other well-known supernova remnants include the Crab Nebula ; Tycho, the remnant of SN 1572 , named after Tycho Brahe who recorded

1953-676: The angular diameters of four red dwarfs including Proxima Centauri . During this operation it achieved an angular resolution of ±0.08 milli-arc-seconds (0.388 nano-radians). This is comparable to the resolution achieved using other arrays such as the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer and the CHARA array . Unlike many earlier optical and infrared interferometers, the Astronomical Multi-Beam Recombiner (AMBER) instrument on VLTI

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2016-466: The brightness of its original explosion; and Kepler, the remnant of SN 1604 , named after Johannes Kepler . The youngest known remnant in the Milky Way is G1.9+0.3 , discovered in the Galactic Center . An SNR passes through the following stages as it expands: There are three types of supernova remnant: Remnants which could only be created by significantly higher ejection energies than

2079-509: The central parsec . Sgr A West is surrounded by a massive, clumpy torus of cooler molecular gas, the Circumnuclear Disk (CND). The nature and kinematics of the Northern Arm cloud of Sgr A West suggest that it once was a clump in the CND, which fell due to some perturbation, perhaps the supernova explosion responsible for Sgr A East. The Northern Arm appears as a very bright North—South ridge of emission, but it extends far to

2142-542: The detection of carbon monoxide molecules in a galaxy located almost 11 billion light-years away for the first time, a feat that had remained elusive for 25 years. This has allowed astronomers to obtain the most precise measurement of the cosmic temperature at such a remote epoch. Another important study was that of the violent flares from the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The VLT and APEX teamed up to reveal material being stretched out as it orbits in

2205-412: The effects of atmospheric turbulence, providing images almost as sharp as if the telescope were in space. In the near-infrared, the adaptive optics images of the VLT are up to three times sharper than those of the Hubble Space Telescope , and the spectroscopic resolution is many times better than Hubble. The VLTs are noted for their high level of observing efficiency and automation. The primary mirrors of

2268-417: The efficiency of cosmic ray acceleration in supernova remnants is about 10 percent, the cosmic ray losses of the Milky Way are compensated. This hypothesis is supported by a specific mechanism called "shock wave acceleration" based on Enrico Fermi 's ideas, which is still under development. In 1949, Fermi proposed a model for the acceleration of cosmic rays through particle collisions with magnetic clouds in

2331-465: The enclosure and transporter are mechanically isolated from the telescope, to ensure that no vibrations compromise the data collected. The transporter section runs on tracks, so the ATs can be moved to 30 different observing locations. As the VLTI acts rather like a single telescope as large as the group of telescopes combined, changing the positions of the ATs means that the VLTI can be adjusted according to

2394-407: The exoplanetary atmosphere . This important wavelength region is covered by CRIRES+, which will additionally allow tracking multiple absorption lines simultaneously. In its interferometric operating mode, the light from the telescopes is reflected off mirrors and directed through tunnels to a central beam combining laboratory. In the year 2001, during commissioning, the VLTI successfully measured

2457-406: The explosion, and the interstellar material it sweeps up and shocks along the way. There are two common routes to a supernova: either a massive star may run out of fuel, ceasing to generate fusion energy in its core, and collapsing inward under the force of its own gravity to form a neutron star or a black hole ; or a white dwarf star may accrete material from a companion star until it reaches

2520-579: The fathers of radio astronomy, discovered that a radio signal was coming from a location in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius, towards the center of the Milky Way. His observations did not extend quite as far south as we now know to be the Galactic Center. Observations by Jack Piddington and Harry Minnett using the CSIRO radio telescope at Potts Hill Reservoir , in Sydney discovered

2583-430: The first extrasolar planet so imaged, tracking individual stars moving around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, and observing the afterglow of the furthest known gamma-ray burst . In 2018, the VLT helped to perform the first successful test of Albert Einstein 's General Relativity on the motion of a star passing through the extreme gravitational field near the supermassive black hole, that

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2646-466: The first general user optical/infrared interferometric facility offered with this kind of service to the astronomical community. Because of the many mirrors involved in the optical train, about 95% of the light is lost before reaching the instruments at a wavelength of 1 μm, 90% at 2 μm and 75% at 10 μm. This refers to reflection off 32 surfaces including the Coudé train, the star separator,

2709-432: The first time using the VLT. The planet, which is known as GJ 1214b , was studied as it passed in front of its parent star and some of the starlight passed through the planet's atmosphere. In all, of the top 10 discoveries done at ESO's observatories, seven made use of the VLT. Each Unit Telescope is a Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain telescope with a 22-tonne 8.2 metre Zerodur primary mirror of 14.4 m focal length, and

2772-481: The four VLT Unit Telescopes, to replace the original technical designations of UT1 to UT4. In March 1999, at the time of the Paranal inauguration, four meaningful names of objects in the sky in the Mapuche language were chosen. This indigenous people lives mostly south of Santiago de Chile. An essay contest was arranged in this connection among schoolchildren of the Chilean II Region of which Antofagasta

2835-519: The four smaller 1.8-metre ATs are available and dedicated to interferometry to allow the VLTI to operate every night. The top part of each AT is a round enclosure, made from two sets of three segments, which open and close. Its job is to protect the delicate 1.8-metre telescope from the desert conditions. The enclosure is supported by the boxy transporter section, which also contains electronics cabinets, liquid cooling systems, air-conditioning units, power supplies, and more. During astronomical observations

2898-472: The galaxy. Sagittarius A* (abbreviated Sgr A*) is agreed to be the most plausible candidate for the location of this supermassive black hole. The Very Large Telescope at Chile and Keck Telescope at Hawaii have detected stars orbiting Sgr A* at speeds greater than that of any other stars in the galaxy. One star, designated S2 , was calculated to orbit Sgr A* at speeds of over 5,000 kilometers per second at its closest approach. A gas cloud, G2, passed through

2961-457: The individual telescopes. The light beams are combined in the VLTI using a complex system of mirrors in tunnels where the light paths must be kept equal within differences of less than 1 μm over a light path of a hundred metres. With this kind of precision, the VLTI can reconstruct images with an angular resolution of milliarcseconds. It had long been ESO's intention to provide "real" names to

3024-509: The inner structure of the mysterious Eta Carinae . In March 2011, the PIONIER instrument for the first time simultaneously combined the light of the four Unit Telescopes, potentially making VLTI the biggest optical telescope in the world. However, this attempt was not really a success. The first successful attempt was in February 2012, with four telescopes combined into a 130-meter diameter mirror. In March 2019, ESO astronomers, employing

3087-515: The intense gravity close to the central black hole. Using the VLT, astronomers have also estimated the age of extremely old stars in the NGC 6397 cluster. Based on stellar evolution models, two stars were found to be 13.4 ± 0.8 billion years old, that is, they are from the earliest era of star formation in the Universe. They have also analysed the atmosphere around a super-Earth exoplanet for

3150-400: The light via tunnels to the central VLTI beam-combiners. The maximum field-of-view (at Nasmyth foci) is around 27 arcminutes diameter, slightly smaller than the full moon, though most instruments view a narrower field. Each telescope has an alt-azimuth mount with total mass around 350 tonnes, and uses active optics with 150 supports on the back of the primary mirror to control the shape of

3213-418: The main delay line, beam compressor and feeding optics. Additionally, the interferometric technique is such that it is very efficient only for objects that are small enough that all their light is concentrated. For instance, an object with a relatively low surface brightness such as the moon cannot be observed, because its light is too diluted. Only targets which are at temperatures of more than 1,000° C have

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3276-485: The needs of the observing project. The reconfigurable nature of the VLTI is similar to that of the Very Large Array . Results from the VLT have led to the publication of an average of more than one peer-reviewed scientific paper per day. For instance in 2017, over 600 refereed scientific papers were published based on VLT data. The telescope's scientific discoveries include direct imaging of Beta Pictoris b ,

3339-504: The observing conditions, for instance from air turbulence in the telescope tube, which might otherwise occur due to variations in the temperature and wind flow. The principal role of the main VLT telescopes is to operate as four independent telescopes. The interferometry (combining light from multiple telescopes) is used about 20 percent of the time for very high-resolution on bright objects, for example, on Betelgeuse . This mode allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with

3402-458: The order of a few light-years in size), many smaller cloudlets and holes inside the large clouds can be seen. The most prominent of these perturbations is the Minicavity, which is interpreted as a bubble blown inside the Northern Arm by the stellar wind of a massive star, which is not clearly identified. Astronomers now have evidence that there is a supermassive black hole at the center of

3465-416: The performance of the main delay lines . Note that this only applies to the interferometer and not other instruments on Paranal. In 2005, the VLTI was routinely producing observations, although with a brighter limiting magnitude and poorer observing efficiency than expected. As of March 2008 , the VLTI had already led to the publication of 89 peer-reviewed publications and had published a first-ever image of

3528-437: The previous year. Researchers speculated that this could mean that the black hole is entering a new phase, or that Sagittarius A* had stripped the outer layer of G2 when it passed through. Supernova remnant A supernova remnant ( SNR ) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova . The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave , and consists of ejected material expanding from

3591-511: The scientific objectives of CRIRES+ is in-transit spectroscopy of exoplanets, which currently provides us with the only means of studying exoplanetary atmospheres. Transiting planets are almost always close-in planets that are hot and radiate most of their light in the infrared (IR) . Furthermore, the IR is a spectral region where lines of molecular gases like carbon monoxide (CO) , ammonia (NH 3 ) , and methane (CH 4 ) , etc. are expected from

3654-485: The thin (177mm thick) mirror by computers. The VLT instrumentation programme is the most ambitious programme ever conceived for a single observatory. It includes large-field imagers, adaptive optics corrected cameras and spectrographs, as well as high-resolution and multi-object spectrographs and covers a broad spectral region, from deep ultraviolet (300 nm) to mid-infrared (24 μm) wavelengths. In addition to these, GRAVITY and MATISSE are currently installed in

3717-465: The three-dimensional structure of the Minispiral is not that of a spiral. It is made of several dust and gas clouds , which orbit and fall onto Sagittarius A* at velocities as high as 1,000 kilometers per second. The surface layer of these clouds is ionized . The source of ionisation is the population of massive stars (more than one hundred OB stars have been identified so far) that also occupy

3780-484: The use of large telescope diameters and adaptive optics correction can improve the sensitivity, this cannot extend the reach of optical interferometry beyond nearby stars and the brightest active galactic nuclei . Because the Unit Telescopes are used most of the time independently, they are used in the interferometric mode mostly during bright time (that is, close to full moon). At other times, interferometry

3843-428: Was initially designed to perform coherent integration (which requires signal-to-noise greater than one in each atmospheric coherence time). Using the big telescopes and coherent integration, the faintest object the VLTI can observe is magnitude 7 in the near infrared for broadband observations, similar to many other near infrared / optical interferometers without fringe tracking. In 2011, an incoherent integration mode

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3906-506: Was introduced called AMBER "blind mode", which is more similar to the observation mode used at earlier interferometer arrays such as COAST, IOTA and CHARA. In this "blind mode", AMBER can observe sources as faint as K=10 in medium spectral resolution. At more challenging mid-infrared wavelengths, the VLTI can reach magnitude 4.5, significantly fainter than the Infrared Spatial Interferometer . When fringe tracking

3969-421: Was some confusion as to whether Yepun actually stands for the evening star Venus, because a Spanish-Mapuche dictionary from the 1940s wrongly translated Yepun as "Sirius". Although the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes can be combined in the VLTI , their observation time is spent mostly on individual observations, and are used for interferometric observations for a limited number of nights every year. However,

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