Laser-guided stars sharpen Tarantula Nebula observations

ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer fires four lasers into the Tarantula Nebula to create artificial guide stars, helping compensate for Earth's atmosphere with adaptive optics and sharpen distant space images; the Tarantula Nebula sits about 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and this highlights laser guide star technology as a growing tool in astronomy.