Overview
- Four lasers launched from ESO’s Paranal site created artificial stars about 90 km up to drive the Very Large Telescope Interferometer’s adaptive optics.
- The GRAVITY+ upgrade adds a laser to each eight-meter Unit Telescope, removing the need for nearby bright natural guide stars and vastly widening target availability.
- Commissioning observations in the Tarantula Nebula resolved a previously presumed single massive star into a close binary, demonstrating the system’s resolving power.
- On the second night, the team reported resolving hot oxygen-emitting gas near a quasar’s central black hole, signaling new reach to distant active galaxies.
- Project leaders say sensitivity is now up to ten times greater, enabling studies ranging from exoplanets and young planet-forming disks to direct measurements of supermassive black hole masses.