Shining 90 kilometres above a peak in Chile the Laser Guide Star (LGS) will be used by other instruments to fine tune their devices and enhance images from space.
"Thanks to adaptive optics, the VLT (Very Large Telescope, situated on the same mountain) will capture images of comparable resolution to those you get in outer space," said the project’s leader, Domenico Bonaccini.
The artificial star is beamed from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), on Paranal peak in Chile and is formed by concentrating a yellow beam of laser light half a metre in diameter high above the atmosphere.
The project is five years in the making and combines the efforts of scientists from all over the world including Germany, Finland, Britain, the Netherlands, and Portugal.