THE VLT INTERFEROMETER - HUNTING FOR PLANETS

摘要

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) Observatory on Cerro Paranal (2635m) in Northern Chile is approaching completion. After the four 8-m Unit Telescopes (UT) individually saw first light in the last years, two of them were combined for the first time on October 30, 2001 to form a stellar interferometer, the VLT Interferometer. The combination in pairs of all four UTs was completed in September 2002. In this article, we will describe the subsystems of the VLTI and the planning for the following years. Furthermore, we will discuss the instrumental requirements for planet searches from the ground and show that the VLTI is an excellent facility for planet searches from the ground since it has both large apertures and long baselines, providing high SNR and milliarcsecond (mas) resolution.