Editing ESO 3.6 m Telescope (section)

{{Short description|Optical reflecting telescope in Chile}}
{{Redirect|ADONIS|the encryption machine|KL-7|other uses|adonis (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox Telescope}}
[[image:ESO3 6 Telescope.jpg|thumb|ESO 3.6 m Telescope]]
The '''ESO 3.6 m Telescope''' is an optical reflecting [[telescope]] run by the [[European Southern Observatory]] at [[La Silla Observatory]], [[Chile]] since 1977, with a clear aperture of about {{convert|3.6|m|in}} and {{convert|8.6|m2|sqft|abbr=on}} area.

The telescopes uses the [[High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher|HARPS]] instrument and has discovered more than 130 [[exoplanets]]. In 2012, it discovered [[Alpha Centauri Bb]], a now-disproven possible planet in the [[Alpha Centauri]] system only 4.4 light-years away.<ref>http://www.planetary.org, Bruce Betts, [http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bruce-betts/20121017-Alpha-Centauri-first-planet-discovery.html B. Betts - First Planet Discovered in Alpha Centauri System - TPS], 18 October 2012</ref>

ESO collaborated with [[CERN]] on building the telescope.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Madsen|first=Claus|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/818323656|title=The jewel on the mountaintop : fifty years of the European Southern Observatory|date=2012|publisher=Wiley-VCH|isbn=978-3-527-41203-7|location=[Weinheim]|oclc=818323656}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Reiz|first=Anders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFrvAAAAMAAJ|title=ESO/SRC/CERN Conference on Research Programmes for the New Large Telescopes, Geneva, 27-31 May 1974: Proceedings|date=1974|publisher=Organizing Committee of the Conference|language=en}}</ref> It saw first light in 1976 and entered full operations in 1977.<ref name="eso.org">{{cite web|title=Telescopes and Instrumentation, the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope|url=http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/36.html|access-date=2011-05-02|type=Table on the right of the page}}</ref> When completed it was one of the [[List of largest optical reflecting telescopes|world's largest optical telescopes]]. It received an overhaul in 1999 and a new secondary in 2004. The ESO 3.6-metre Telescope has supported many scientific achievements and presented '''ADONIS''', one of the first [[adaptive optics]] system available to the astronomical community in the 1980s.