Sunday, May 8, 2011

Magellanic Clouds, Very Large Telescope Array

-Magellanic Clouds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds

The Magellanic Clouds are a part of the local group of galaxies. The local group of galaxies includes the Milky Way and is made up of over 30 galaxies. The gravitational center of the local group is in between the Milky Way and Andromeda.

- Very Large Telescopes

The very large telescope is, according to its site, the "world's most advanced optical instrument." Among its technology, it uses underground tunnels of mirrors to combine the light beams. The telescope could tell the difference between the "two headlights of a car at the distance of the Moon." That is pretty crazy.
The VLT have an incredibly high angular resolution due to the combination of light collected by the 4 main telescopes and 4 other "auxiliary" telescopes. The main telescopes are 8.2 m in diameter, and the auxiliary telescopes are 1.8 m in diameter.

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