Planet Uranus Caught On VLT (Very Large Telescope)

BBC ^ | 12-31-2002

[blam]

Tuesday, 31 December, 2002, 11:34 GMT

Planet Uranus caught on VLT

A picture showing Uranus and moons (pic: ESO)

The "Very Large Telescope" (VLT) has caught a remarkable image of the planet Uranus circled by some of its moons. The rings of the planet - which is 3,000 million kilometres away from Earth - were clearly displayed in the image.

The rings are almost undetectable from Earth in visible light.

The VLT is located at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in Chile.

The image was obtained in near-infrared, and contains seven of its moons.

VLT is based at Paranal in Chile Two of the moons in the picture, Puck and Portia, were only found in the 1980s as the Voyager probe prepared for its flyby of the planet.

Uranus, which is at a distance from the Earth equivalent to 20 times the distance between the Earth and sun, was first spotted by William Herschel in 1781.

The UK contributes approximately 20% of the cost of the European Southern Observatory.

[Junior]

It's good to know there's no crust on Uranus.

[blam]

"Well, that doesn't make it less funny to me!"

I suppose it is okay if you have a VLF (Very Large Funny).

[facedown]

ping

[Petronski]

No real crust on Uranus? While that's good news, it's more than I needed to know.

Jokes about Uranus are so juvenile. So why am I laughing out loud? ;)

[joesnuffy]

Now we know the color of the rings around Ur...........never mind

[texson66]

Yes the big U was found to have rings on a probe flyby 20 yrs or so ago...
Big blue storm - Neptune
Comet chunks impacted Jupiter

[antaresequity]

No real crust on Uranus?

I beg to differ. My friends in Star Fleet have informed me that Uranus boasts a large population of Klingons

[ghostrider]

Har de har har!

[ghostrider]

</b>

[Texas dog]

Well, no doubt you will indeed be pleased that the Europeans are considering building an ELT (yes, of course; Extremely Large Telescope!)

[ErnBatavia]

You're no fun.

I probably wouldn't be either if I were under Tornado Watches like Blam's area is this morning! Duck, dig, and cover Uranus!

[blam]

"I probably wouldn't be either if I were under Tornado Watches like Blam's area is this morning! Duck, dig, and cover Uranus!"

Yup. Roaring through right now.

[NautiNurse]

We are expecting the strong line of storms tonight--just about the time when New Year's revelers are weaving themselves and their cars home. Stay safe!

[VMI70]

I heard they were wiped out.

[The FRugitive]

[quote]Does anyone besides me find the name VLT (Very Large Telescope) amusing? [/quote]

It's one in a series. Previous was the FLT (Fairly Large Telescope) which was presceded by the NRTLT (Not Really That Lage Telescope).

Next in the series is the BFT. ;)

[Valin]

I always thought Uranus was a planet
< /Uranus jokes>

[Centurion2000]

And which one has the big blue storm? And which one had the meteors hitting it a few years back?

Uranus had the rings. Neptune has the Big Blue Spot. Jupiter got the smackdown from the Levy comet fragments

[dd5339]

Ping!

[Pearls Before Swine]

No 'Uranus' jokes please.

Huh-huh...you said... Sorry, can't help it. I got the kids the AOL Beavis & Butthead DVD set for Xmas, so its on my mind.

[Hacksaw]

Does anyone besides me find the name VLT (Very Large Telescope) amusing? It's sort of self-evident, yet understated.

That is standard for govt. work. When I was in engineer school at Ft. Leonard Wood, one of the instructors was talking about BFR's. When asked what a BFR was, he replied "Big F*cking Rock".