Gallery · ESO
Stars on demand
Nothing is being attacked with space lasers in this Picture of the Week, although it may look like those four bright yellow streaks are menacing the galaxies to the right of the image. These streaks are, in fact, four artificial stars. As starlight passes through our restless atmosphere it gets blurred, distorting astronomical images. Artificial stars allow us to correct for this, but why do the ones in this picture…
- Credit
- ESO
- Telescope
- European Southern Observatory
- Release
- potw2644a
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0 — credit required
- Published
- Source
- ESO release page