Very Large Telescope

The Very Large Telescope is an observing facility operated by the European Southern Observatory at Paranal Observatory in Chile. Its four 8.2-meter Unit Telescopes and four movable 1.8-meter Auxiliary Telescopes can work independently or combine their light interferometrically.

Unit Telescope: One of the Very Large Telescope’s four 8.2-meter optical telescopes, each with its own instruments and adaptive-optics systems. These four fixed telescopes provide the facility’s largest light-collecting apertures.
SPHERE: An extreme adaptive-optics instrument on the VLT designed to image and characterize exoplanets and circumstellar environments. It suppresses starlight to reveal faint companions close to bright stars.
European Southern Observatory: An intergovernmental astronomy organization that operates observatories and telescopes in Chile. ESO designed and operates the VLT as part of its Chilean observatory network.
Keck Observatory: An astronomical observatory in Hawaii whose two 10-meter telescopes can operate separately or as an interferometer. Keck uses two larger individual mirrors, rather than four 8.2-meter Unit Telescopes.
Auxiliary Telescope: A movable 1.8-meter telescope designed to feed light into the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. Four movable telescopes extend interferometric coverage across different baselines.
GRAVITY: A VLT Interferometer instrument that combines infrared light to make precise measurements near the Galactic Center and elsewhere. It has tracked stellar orbits around the Milky Way’s central black hole.
Cerro Paranal: A mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert that hosts the Very Large Telescope. The VLT was built on this high, dry site to obtain clear observing conditions.
Gran Telescopio Canarias: A 10.4-meter optical and infrared telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands. Its single segmented primary mirror contrasts with the VLT’s array of separate telescopes.
Very Large Telescope Interferometer: An ESO instrument that combines light from the Very Large Telescope’s Unit or Auxiliary Telescopes for high-angular-resolution observations. It merges separate telescope beams to resolve details beyond a single telescope’s reach.
FORS2: A visible-light imager and spectrograph mounted on a VLT Unit Telescope. Its imaging and spectroscopy support observations of objects ranging from planets to distant galaxies.

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