Oh, when will scientists learn? First it was laser pointers, then sharks with lasers. Now? Lightning storms with lasers.

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What could possibly go wrong? Dun dun DUNNNNNNNN.

OK, fine. In reality, this picture actually shows a storm approaching an observatory testing out a new type of laser guide star system; lasers can be used as a way of increasing the resolution of telescopes. The storm was still a ways off, but from the photographer’s view the laser was superposed over it, and happened to catch a pretty dramatic lightning bolt in the picture.

I was interested to read that the laser had a power of about 20 Watts. A decent green laser pointer has a power of roughly 1/5^th of a Watt, so this one is 100 times as powerful. I’ve used a 1 Watt hand-held laser before, and it literally scared me; it was so bright it felt like a weapon. The laser seen above is a lot brighter yet, and they need to have spotters when they’re used to make sure no airplanes are nearby. The beam might (under extraordinary circumstances) damage the plane, and would surely blind the pilot; not a happy circumstance.

Of course, lightning is even more powerful. After this picture gets around, I expect SyFy will air "Megalaser versus Superlightning". Which I would totally watch.

Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Clearly defeated in their attempt to destroy the galaxy with a laser, NASA sets its sights somewhat closer and tries to destroy the Moon:

Cooooool. Actually, while that is a laser, it’s a bit too low power to do any damage to our friendly Moon. But it does have enough to help NASA track satellites! It’s part of the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Laser Ranging Facility in Maryland. We know the speed of light very accurately, so if you ping a satellite with a laser beam you can time the pulses and very accurately determine the satellite’s position.

In this case, two beams were being used to track the position of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of my favorite space missions of all time (to see why, check out this gallery of images I posted recently).

I used to work at Goddard, and I remember going to this facility once because it was a dark site from which I could try to spot a comet that happened to be passing us at the time. The laser was being used, and it was positively awe-inspiring and quite surreal to see it streaking up into the sky. And yes, they have to keep a careful eye out for airplanes and such flying past. While that beam isn’t enough to melt a satellite, it’s certainly enough to fry a pilot’s eyes!

Which is why you don’t want sharks equipped with these things. Really, that’s just asking for trouble.

Image credit: NASA

Some astronomical pictures are simply and truly cool.

And this, my friends, is near the top of the list.

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Yes, the wow factor is high with this one! And the thing is, what you see is what you get: it’s a laser shooting out of an observatory straight up into the heart of our galaxy!

The observatory is of the European Southern flavor, in Chile. It houses the Very Large Telescope, which has a very nice little tool it can use: a laser guide star. The laser shoots up into the sky and excites atoms in the upper atmosphere, causing them to glow. That makes an artificial and very bright star in the sky! The telescope can then use that star to track the distortions in the atmosphere and compensate for them, allowing the images it makes to be incredibly clear and sharp.

Although it doesn’t say so explicitly in the press release, given where the laser is pointing I’m guessing they were observing stars orbiting the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. (more…)