A flagship European Southern Observatory facility on Cerro Paranal in Chile, whose GRAVITY and SINFONI instruments tracked the star S2 through its 2018 close pericentre passage near the Milky Way's central black hole, Sagittarius A*, producing the first confirmed measurement of Schwarzschild orbital precession, a signature of Einstein's general relativity, and capping Reinhard Genzel's 30-year observation campaign that shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Facts
Observatory TypeGround-based optical observatory (interferometer) 1 LocationCerro Paranal, Atacama Desert, Chile 1 MeasuresMeasures visible and infrared light. 1 Operating PrincipleConsists of four 8.2-meter Unit Telescopes that can operate independently or be combined into a single interferometer, the VLTI, for much finer angular resolution. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia FoundationVery Large Telescope, lead paragraph sectionQuote, Very Large Telescope, lead paragraph section
The Very Large Telescope (VLT)
1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia FoundationVery Large Telescope, General information sectionQuote, Very Large Telescope, General information section
The VLT consists of an arrangement of four large, 8.2-metre (27 ft) diameter telescopes (called Unit Telescopes or UTs) with optical elements that can combine them into an astronomical interferometer (VLTI)
1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia FoundationVery Large Telescope, introductionQuote, Very Large Telescope, introduction
The VLT is capable of observing both visible and infrared wavelengths.
ESO - Star Dance Around Supermassive Black Hole (2020)
European Southern Observatory, European Southern ObservatoryOpening paragraph, 16 April 2020 releaseQuote, Opening paragraph, 16 April 2020 release
Observations made with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed for the first time that a star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way moves just as predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity.
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