Caption: "This is roughly what we could see if we lie down on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) platform at night, when the Laser Guide Star (LSG) is being used. The laser beam, launched from VLT's 8.2-metre Yepun telescope, crosses the sky and creates an artificial star at 90 km altitude in the high Earth's mesosphere. The LSG is part of the VLT's adaptive optics system and it is used as reference to correct images from the blurring effect of the Earth's atmosphere. Three of the four VLT 8.2-meter telescopes are seen in this impressive view. The Milky Way, with the bright star Sirius at the center, appears almost perpendicular to the direction of the laser. On the left edge, the Orion's sword (an asterism in the constellation Orion) is visible; the brightest diffuse spot is the star formation region the Orion Nebula (M42)." (Slightly edited.)

Features:

1. Click on the image and then click on the next one to get the stunning high-resolution version. European Southern Observatory (ESO) likes to impress.

2. The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is at Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It is operated by ESO.

3. Both fundamental physics (e.g., cosmology) and applied physics (e.g., the nature of stars) is pursued in astronomy---here using the applied physics of the laser guide star (LSG)---which relies on the fundamental physics of light and matter.

4. Yours truly doesn't think that the Milky Way looks to so obvious to the naked eye even on Cerro Paranal.

   So the image is probably from a high-sensitivity CCD camera or, less likely nowadays, a long-exposure image.

   If a long-exposure image, then the CCD camera is being clock driven since there are NO star trails. But then telescope domes would move. So the image is NOT a long-exposure image.

5. Also note that you see the laser beam.

   In most contexts with visual observation, you do NOT see a laser beam since you only see reflected or scattered light and a laser beam passing through air doesn't scatter much off air molecules or aerosols (e.g., water drops or dust).

   For example, you only see a laser beam from a laser pointer when it reflects diffusely off a surface, unless there is a lot of aerosol to scatter the propagating laser beam and make it observable.

   So yours truly suspects that the laser beam in the image has been artificially enhanced for display reasons.

6. The upshot is you are probably NOT seeing what the human eye sees when you look at this image in key respects.