First light for the GRAVITY+ adaptive optics

GRAVITY+ has published first-light results for Gravity Plus Adaptive Optics (GPAO), the high-order adaptive-optics system now on all four VLT Unit Telescopes. GPAO offers visible and infrared natural-guide-star correction, with a laser-guide-star mode to follow.

Commissioning of the natural-guide-star mode at the end of 2024 already produced interferometric observations that were out of reach before: a quasar at redshift z ~ 4, a cool brown dwarf at K ~ 21, the first GRAVITY spectrum of a Class I young star, and the first sub-microarcsecond optical differential astrometry.

I am a co-author of the paper and a member of the GRAVITY+ consortium.

Read First Light for the GRAVITY+ Adaptive Optics in Astronomy & Astrophysics 707, A115 (March 2026).