Artist’s impression of the Extremely Large Telescope deploying lasers for adaptive optics

The ELT will make extensive use of adaptive optics to achieve images of remarkable sharpness. In this artist’s view the future 39-metre telescope is shown using lasers to create artificial stars high in the atmosphere. These are used as part of the telescope’s sophisticated adaptive optics system to remove much of the blurring effect of the Earth’s atmosphere. The design for the ELT shown here is preliminary.