Astronomy Picture of the Day: A Laser Strike at the Galactic Center
A Laser Strike at the Galactic Center Why are these people shooting a powerful laser into the center of our Galaxy? Fortunately, this is not meant to be the first step in a Galactic war . Rather, astronomers at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) site in Chile are trying to measure the distortions of Earth's ever changing atmosphere . Constant imaging of high-altitude atoms excited by the laser -- which appear like an artificial star -- allow astronomers to instantly measure atmospheric blurring . This information is fed back to a VLT telescope mirror which is then slightly deformed to minimize this blurring. In this case , a VLT was observing our Galaxy's center , and so Earth's atmospheric blurring in that direction was needed. As for inter-galaxy warfare, when viewed from our Galaxy's center , no casualties are expected. In fact, the light from this powerful laser ...
