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Astronomers have unveiled a massive infrared map of the Milky Way, the most detailed ever created, featuring over 1.5 billion celestial objects. The map was produced using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) VISTA telescope, which has been observing the central regions of the galaxy for more than 13 years. The project, which generated 500 terabytes of data, is now the largest observational by Robert Schreiber
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Sep 27, 2024
Astronomers have unveiled a massive infrared map of the Milky Way, the most detailed ever created, featuring over 1.5 billion celestial objects. The map was produced using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) VISTA telescope, which has been observing the central regions of the galaxy for more than 13 years. The project, which generated 500 terabytes of data, is now the largest observational effort ever conducted with an ESO telescope.
"We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever," said Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andres Bello in Chile and leader of the project. The map was built from 200,000 images captured by VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) located at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. VISTA's infrared camera, VIRCAM, allowed researchers to peer through the dust and gas within the Milky Way, revealing previously hidden areas of the galaxy.
The dataset spans an area of the sky equivalent to 8600 full moons and contains 10 times more objects than a similar map released by the same team in 2012. The objects cataloged range from newborn stars encased in dust to globular clusters, which are dense groupings of some of the oldest stars in the galaxy. By capturing infrared light, VISTA was also able to detect cold objects such as brown dwarfs and rogue planets, which are free-floating and not bound to any star.
Observations for the project began in 2010 and concluded in mid-2023, covering 420 nights of skywatching. By repeatedly observing each part of the sky, the team was able to track object locations, movements, and brightness variations. This enabled them to map stars with periodic brightness fluctuations, which serve as cosmic markers for measuring distances. The survey also tracked hypervelocity stars, which move rapidly after being ejected from the central regions of the galaxy following interactions with the supermassive black hole at its core.
The new map incorporates data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey and its extended version, the VVVX survey. "The project was a monumental effort, made possible because we were surrounded by a great team," said Roberto Saito, an astrophysicist at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil and lead author of the study published in 'Astronomy and Astrophysics'.
The VVV and VVVX surveys have already resulted in over 300 scientific publications, and researchers expect decades of further analysis from the data. Meanwhile, preparations are underway at ESO's Paranal Observatory for future upgrades. VISTA will receive the 4MOST instrument, and ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) will be equipped with the MOONS instrument, allowing scientists to obtain spectra from millions of the objects cataloged in this survey.
Although the dataset is too large to be displayed as a single image, processed data and the object catalog are available through the ESO Science Portal.
Research Report:The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea eXtended (VVVX) ESO public survey: Completion of the observations and legacy
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