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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                    2024 May 4   
      
                                       3 ATs   
          Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas   
                                Observatory, TWAN)   
      
      Explanation: Despite their resemblance to R2D2, these three are not the   
      droids you're looking for. Instead, the enclosures house 1.8 meter   
      Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) at Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert   
      region of Chile. The ATs are designed to be used for interferometry, a   
      technique for achieving extremely high resolution observations, in   
      concert with the observatory's 8 meter Very Large Telescope units. A   
      total of four ATs are operational, each fitted with a transporter that   
      moves the telescope along a track allowing different arrays with the   
      large unit telescopes. To work as an interferometer, the light from   
      each telescope is brought to a common focal point by a system of   
      mirrors in underground tunnels. Above these three ATs, the Large and   
      Small Magellanic Clouds are the far, far away satellite galaxies of our   
      own Milky Way. In the clear and otherwise dark southern skies, planet   
      Earth's greenish atmospheric airglow stretches faintly along the   
      horizon.   
      
                      Tomorrow's picture: death by black hole   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,   
                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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