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Five of them show beautiful wispy nebulae in different shades of blue, purple and pink. One of them shows a tightly packed spherical distribution of stars. Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects -- the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope, the team monitored the central regions of our Galaxy over more than 13 years. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational project ever carried out with an ESO telescope. "We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever," says Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andres Bello in Chile who led the overall project. This record-breaking map comprises 200 000 images taken by ESO's VISTA -- the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. Located at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile, the telescope's main purpose is to map large areas of the sky. The team used VISTA's infrared camera VIRCAM, which can peer through the dust and gas that permeates our galaxy. It is therefore able to see the radiation from the Milky Way's most hidden places, opening a unique window onto our galactic surroundings. This gigantic dataset [1] covers an area of the sky equivalent to 8600 full moons, and contains about 10 times more objects than a previous map released by the same team back in 2012. It includes newborn stars, which are often embedded in dusty cocoons, and globular clusters -- dense groups of millions of the oldest stars in the Milky Way. Observing infrared light means VISTA can also spot very cold objects, which glow at these wavelengths, like brown dwarfs ('failed' stars that do not have sustained nuclear fusion) or free-floating planets that don't orbit a star. The observations began in 2010 and ended in the first half of 2023, spanning a total of 420 nights. By observing each patch of the sky many times, the team was able to not only determine the locations of these objects, but also track how they move and whether their brightness changes. They charted stars whose luminosity changes periodically that can be used as cosmic rulers for measuring distances [2]. This has given us an accurate 3D view of the inner regions of the Milky Way, which were previously hidden by dust. The researchers also tracked hypervelocity stars -- fast-moving stars catapulted from the central region of the Milky Way after a close encounter with the supermassive black hole lurking there. The new map contains data gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey [3] and its companion project, the VVV eXtended (VVVX) survey. "The project was a monumental effort, made possible because we were surrounded by a great team," says Roberto Saito, an astrophysicist at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil and lead author of the paper published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics on the completion of the project. The VVV and VVVX surveys have already led to more than 300 scientific articles. With the surveys now complete, the scientific exploration of the gathered data will continue for decades to come. Meanwhile, ESO's Paranal Observatory is being prepared for the future: VISTA will be updated with its new instrument 4MOST and ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) will receive its MOONS instrument. Together, they will provide spectra of millions of the objects surveyed here, with countless discoveries to be expected. Notes [1] The dataset is too large to release as a single image, but the processed data and objects catalogue can be accessed in the ESO Science Portal. [2] One way to measure the distance to a star is by comparing how bright it appears as seen from Earth to how intrinsically bright it is; but the latter is often unknown. Certain types of stars change their brightness periodically, and there is a very strong connection between how quickly they do this and how intrinsically luminous they are. Measuring these fluctuations allows astronomers to work out how luminous these stars are, and therefore how far away they lie. [3] Via Lactea is the Latin name for the Milky Way. More information This research was presented in a paper entitled "The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea eXtended (VVVX) ESO public survey: Completion of the observations and legacy" published in Astronomy & Astrophysics ( https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202450584). Data DOI: VVV, VVVX. The team is composed of R. K. Saito (Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil [UFSC]), M. Hempel (Instituto de Astrofisica, Dep. de Ciencias Fisicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Andres Bello, Providencia, Chile [ASTROUNAB] and Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany), J. Alonso-Garcia (Centro de Astronomia, Universidad de Antofagasta, Antofagasta, Chile [CITEVA] and Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, Providencia, Chile [MAS]), P. W. Lucas (Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom [CAR]), D. Minniti (ASTROUNAB; Vatican Observatory, Vatican City, Vatican City State [VO] and UFSC), S. Alonso (Departamento de Geofisica y Astronomia, CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Rivadavia, Argentina [UNSJ-CONICET]), L. Baravalle (Instituto de Astronomia Teorica y Experimental, Cordoba, Argentina [IATE-CONICET]; Observatorio Astronomico de Cordoba, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Argentina [OAC]), J. Borissova (Instituto de Fisica y Astronomia, Universidad de Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile [IFA-UV] and MAS), C. Caceres (ASTROUNAB), A. N. Chene (Gemini Observatory, Northern Operations Center, Hilo, USA), N. J. G. Cross (Wide-Field Astronomy Unit, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, United Kingdom), F. Duplancic (UNSJ-CONICET), E. R. Garro (European Southern Observatory, Vitacura, Chile [ESO Chile]), M. Gomez (ASTROUNAB), V. D. Ivanov (European Southern Observatory, Garching bei Munchen [ESO Germany]), R. Kurtev (IFA-UV and MAS), A. Luna (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Napoli, Italy [INAF- OACN]), D. Majaess (Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Canada), M. G. Navarro (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy [INAF-OAR]), J. B. Pullen (ASTROUNAB), M. Rejkuba (ESO Germany), J. L. Sanders (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, United Kingdom), L. C. Smith (Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom), P. H. C. Albino (UFSC), M. V. Alonso (IATE-CONICET and OAC), E. B. Amores (Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana, Brazil), E. B. R. Angeloni (Gemini Observatory/NSF's NOIRLab, La Serena, Chile [NOIRLab]), J. I. Arias (Departamento de Astronomia, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile [ULS]), M. Arnaboldi (ESO Germany), B. Barbuy (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil), A. Bayo (ESO Germany), J. C. Beamin (ASTROUNAB and Fundacion Chilena de Astronomia, Santiago, Chile), L. R. Bedin (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Padova, Italy [INAF-OAPd]), A. Bellini (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA [STScI]), R. A. Benjamin (Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, USA), E. Bica (Departamento de Astronomia, Instituto de Fisica, Porto Alegre, Brazil [IF - UFRGS]), C. J. Bonatto (IF - UFRGS), E. Botan (Instituto de Ciencias Naturais, Humanas e Sociais, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Sinop, Brazil), V. F. Braga (INAF-OAR), D. A. Brown (Vatican Observatory, Tucson, USA), J. B. Cabral (IATE-CONICET and Gerencia De Vinculacion Tecnologica, Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, Cordoba, Argentina), D. Camargo (Colegio Militar de Porto Alegre, Ministerio da Defesa, Exercito Brasileiro, Brazil), A. Caratti o Garatti (INAF- OACN), J. A. Carballo-Bello (Instituto de Alta Investigacion, Universidad de Tarapaca, Arica, Chile [IAI-UTA]), M.Catelan (Instituto de Astrofisica, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile [Instituto de Astrofisica UC]; MAS and Centro de Astro-Ingenieria, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile [AIUC]), C. Chavero (OAC and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientifica y Tecnicas, Ciudad Autonoma de buenos Aires, Argentina [CONICET]), M. A. Chijani (ASTROUNAB), J. J. Claria (OAC and CONICET), G. V. Coldwell (UNSJ-CONICET), C. Contreras Pena (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea and Research Institute of Basic Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea), C. R. Contreras Ramos (Instituto de Astrofisica UC and MAS), J. M. Corral-Santana (ESO Chile), C. C. Cortes (Departamento de Tecnologias Industriales, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Talca, Curico, Chile), M. Cortes-Contreras (Departamento de Fisica de la Tierra y Astrofisica & Instituto de Fisica de Particulas y del Cosmos de la UCM, Facultad de Ciencias Fisicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain), P. Cruz (Centro de Astrobiologia, CSIC-INTA, Madrid, Spain [CAB]), I. V. Daza-Perilla (CONICET; IATE-CONICET and Facultad de Matematica, Astronomia, Fisica y Computacion, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina), V. P. Debattista (University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom), B. Dias (ASTROUNAB), L. Donoso (Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio, San Juan, Argentina), R. D'Souza (VO), J. P. Emerson (Astronomy Unit, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom), S. Federle (ESO Chile and ASTROUNAB), V. Fermiano (UFSC), J. Fernandez (UNSJ-CONICET), J. G. Fernandez-Trincado (Instituto de Astronomia, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile [IA-UCN]), T. Ferreira (Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, USA), C. E. Ferreira Lopes (Instituto de Astronomia y Ciencias Planetarias, Universidad de Atacama, Copiapo, Chile [INCT] and MAS), V. Firpo (NOIRLab), C. Flores-Quintana (ASTROUNAB and MAS), L. Fraga (Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofisica, Itajuba, Brazil), D.Froebrich (Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom), D. Galdeano (UNSJ-CONICET), I. Gavignaud (ASTROUNAB), D. Geisler (Departamento de Astronomia, Universidad de Concepcion, Chile [UdeC]; Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigacion y Postgrado, Universidad de La Serena, Chile [IMIP-ULS] and ULS), O. E.Gerhard (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany [MPE]), W. Gieren (UdeC), O. A. Gonzalez (UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom), L. V. Gramajo (OAC and CONICET), F. Gran (Universite Cote d'Azur, Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, Nice, France [Lagrange]), P. M. Granitto (Centro Internacional Franco Argentino de Ciencias de la Informacion y de Sistemas, Rosario, Argentina), M. Griggio (INAF-OAPd; Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy and STScI), Z. Guo (IFA-UV and MAS), S. Gurovich (IATE-CONICET and Western Sydney University, Kingswood, Australia), M. Hilker (ESO Germany), H. R. A. Jones (CAR), R. Kammers (UFSC), M. A. Kuhn (CAR), M. S. N. Kumar (Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal), R. Kundu (Miranda House, University of Delhi, India and Inter University centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India), M. Lares (IATE-CONICET), M. Libralato (INAF-OAPd), E. Lima (Universidade Federal do Pampa, Uruguaiana, Brazil), T. J. Maccarone (Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA), P. Marchant Cortes (ULS), E. L. Martin (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias and Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidad de La Laguna, San Cristobal de la Laguna, Spain), N. Masetti (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, Bologna, Italy and ASTROUNAB), N. Matsunaga (Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan), F. Mauro (IA-UCN), I. McDonald (Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, The University of Manchester, UK [JBCA]), A. Mejias (Departamento de Astronomia, Universidad de Chile, Las Condes, Chile), V. Mesa (IMIP-ULS; Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Chile, Grupo de Astrofisica Extragalactica-IANIGLA; CONICET, and Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina), F. P. Milla-Castro (ULS), J. H. Minniti (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA), C. Moni Bidin (IA-UCN), K. Montenegro (Clinica Universidad de los Andes, Santiago, Chile), C. Morris (CAR), V. Motta (OAC), F. Navarete (SOAR Telescope/NSF's NOIRLab, La Serena, Chile), C. Navarro Molina (Centro de Docencia Superior en Ciencias Basicas, Universidad Austral de Chile, Puerto Montt, Chile), F. Nikzat (Instituto de Astrofisica UC and MAS), J. L. NiloCastellon (IMIP-ULS and ULS), C. Obasi (IA-UCN and Centre for Basic Space Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria), M. Ortigoza-Urdaneta (Departamento de Matematica, Universidad de Atacama, Copiapo, Chile), T. Palma (OAC), C. Parisi (OAC and IATE-CONICET), K. Pena Ramirez (NSF NOIRLab/Vera C. Rubin Observatory, La Serena, Chile), L. Pereyra (IATE-CONICET), N. Perez (UNSJ-CONICET), I. Petralia (ASTROUNAB), A. Pichel (Instituto de Astronomia y Fisica del Espacio, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina [IAFE-CONICET]), G. Pignata (IAI-UTA), S. Ramirez Alegria (CITEVA), A. F. Rojas (Instituto de Astrofisica UC, Instituto de Estudios Astrofisicos, Facultad de Ingenieria y Ciencias, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile and CITEVA), D. Rojas (ASTROUNAB), A. Roman-Lopes (ULS), A. C. Rovero (IAFE-CONICET), S. Saroon (ASTROUNAB), E. O. Schmidt (OAC and IATE-CONICET), A. C. Schroder (MPE), M. Schultheis (Lagrange), M. A. Sgro (OAC), E. Solano (CAB), M. Soto (INCT), B. Stecklum (Thuringer Landessternwarte, Tautenburg, Germany), D. Steeghs (Department of Physics, University of Warwick, UK), M. Tamura (Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo; Astrobiology Center, Tokyo, Japan, and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan), P. Tissera (Instituto de Astrofisica UC and AIUC), A. A. R. Valcarce (Departamento de Fisica, Universidad de Tarapaca, Chile), C. A. Valotto (IATE-CONICET and OAC), S. Vasquez (Museo Interactivo de la Astronomia, La Granja, Chile), C. Villalon (IATE-CONICET and OAC), S. Villanova (UdeC), F. Vivanco Cadiz (ASTROUNAB), R. Zelada Bacigalupo (North Optics, La Serena, Chile), A. Zijlstra (JBCA and School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia), and M. Zoccali (Instituto de Astrofisica UC and MAS). The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground -- which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy -- and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO's headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world's largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building "the world's biggest eye on the sky" -- ESO's Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society. Links * Research paper * Photos of of the survey telescopes at Paranal, including VISTA * For journalists: subscribe to receive our releases under embargo in your language: * For scientists: got a story? Pitch your research Contacts Roberto K. Saito Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Florianopolis, Brazil Email: roberto.saito@ufsc.br Dante Minniti Universidad Andres Bello Santiago, Chile Email: vvvdante@gmail.com Phil Lucas University of Hertfordshire Hartfield, United Kingdom Email: p.w.lucas@herts.ac.uk Juan Carlos Munoz-Mateos ESO Media Officer Garching bei Munchen, Germany Tel: +49 89 3200 6176 Email: press@eso.org Connect with ESO on social media Usage of ESO Images, Videos, Web texts and Music Are you a journalist? Subscribe to the ESO Media Newsletter in your language. [ ] About the Release Release No.: eso2413 Name: Milky Way Type: Milky Way Facility: Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Instruments: VIRCAM Science data: 2024A&A...689A.148S Images A 2x3 grid of square images of astronomical objects. Five of them show beautiful wispy nebulae in different shades of blue, purple and pink. One of them shows a tightly packed spherical distribution of stars. PR Image eso2413a Highlights of the most detailed infrared map of the Milky Way This image has a small wispy gas cloud at its centre. The cloud is orange and pink, its tendrils getting less opaque and more blue to the left. It is surrounded by thousands of tiny dotted blue, orange and yellow stars, very densely packed, giving the background a blue hue. There are darker patches all over the image where fewer stars are showing. PR Image eso2413b An infrared view of the Messier 17 nebula This image is filled with densely packed stars, most of them only tiny light blue or orange dots. There are so many stars that the dark sky is almost indiscernible. Towards the centre-right there is a dark region with fewer stars and, inside it, a bright orange nebula. PR Image eso2413c An infrared view of the NGC 6188 nebula and the NGC 6193 cluster This image has a bright white conglomeration of stars at its centre, the bright white dots so close together that they almost look like one big white dot. The further away from the centre, the further the stars are apart. The background is black. PR Image eso2413d An infrared view of the Messier 22 globular cluster The Lobster Nebula seen with ESO's VISTA telescope PR Image eso2413e The Lobster Nebula seen with ESO's VISTA telescope The image shows two cosmic clouds of purple with a golden orange glow towards their centres. The clouds are found separated from each other on each side of the image. The clouds stand out against a black background with a myriad of stars. PR Image eso2413f VISTA's view on stellar births This is a very elongated horizontal image showing the Milky Way -- a bright band of stars crossed by dark dusty lanes. There is a grid of small squares with different colours covering most of the image. The sky is divided into different areas, each labeled with the name of a constellation. A set of numbers run both horizontally and vertically along the edges of the image. PR Image eso2413g Area of the Milky Way mapped by the VVV and VVVX surveys --------------------------------------------------------------------- Videos Comparison of VISTA image of NGC 6357 with a visible light image PR Video eso2413a Comparison of VISTA image of NGC 6357 with a visible light image --------------------------------------------------------------------- Send us your comments! Subscribe to receive news from ESO in your language Accelerated by CDN77 Terms & Conditions