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Creating artificial stars
© ESO/A. Ghizzi Panizza
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), emits powerful lasers to assist astronomers studying stars. To battle against a star’s twinkle, astronomers use adaptive optics, whereby they shoot a laser into the sky to replicate another bright star. They can use the shine from the artificial star to correct for the atmospheric turbulence and monitor their target star in greater clarity.