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The SPHERE exoplanet imager for the VLT
This picture shows the complex optics of the SPHERE exoplanet instrument for the VLT just before it left France and was shipped to Chile in February 2014. SPHERE uses many highly optimised techniques to allow the very faint light from an exoplanet to be detected, despite the overwhelming glare from its parent star.
Kredit:SPHERE Project/ESO/J.-L. Beuzit