The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope is a formidable instrument.
Its light-gathering power derives from its four telescopes, each with a main 8.2m diameter mirror, which combine to produce detailed images up to 25 times finer than each individual scope can achieve.
The VLT achieved first light in May 1998, from its location 2,635m high on the Cerro Paranal mountain in the Atacama desert of northern Chile.
Since then it has continued to give astronomers incredible, beautiful and scientifically intriguing views of the Universe.
Here we present ten of our favourite images captured by the VLT over the years.
Planetary Nebula ESO 577-24 Very Large Telescope, 22 January 2019
Star cluster RCW 38, Very Large Telescope, 11 July 2018. Credit: ESO/K. Muzic
Galaxy NGC 1398, Very Large Telescope, 1 January 2018. Credit: ESO
Galaxy NGC 3981, Very Large Telescope, 12 September 2017. Credit: ESO
Very Large Telescope, 18 March 2019
Credit: ESO
Very Large Telescope, 27 June 2016
Credit: ESO/L/Fletcher
The central parts of the Milky Way, seen using the near-infrared NACO instrument on ESO’s Very Large telescope.
Credit: ESO/S. Gillessen et al
Very Large Telescope, 2 November 2016
Credit: ESO/A. McLeod
An image by ESO’s Very Large Telescope of galaxy NGC 4993. The aftermath of the explosion of a pair of merging neutron stars, a kilonova, can be seen just above and to the left of the centre of the galaxy.
Credit: ESO/A.J. Levan, N.R. Tanvir
These three planetary discs have been observed with the SPHERE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The observations were made in order to shed light on the enigmatic evolution of fledgling planetary systems. The central parts of the images appear dark because SPHERE blocks out the light from the brilliant central stars to reveal the much fainter structures surrounding them.
Iain Todd is BBC Sky at Night Magazine's Content Editor. He fell in love with the night sky when he caught his first glimpse of Orion, aged 10.
The Milky Way stretches across the sky above ESO's Paranal Observatory, location of of the Very Large Telescope. Credit: John Colosimo (colosimophotography.com)/ESO
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