space.com | 2024 Sept 27
The most detailed infrared map of the Milky Way contains incredible images of over 1.5 billion objects within our galaxy.
The 200,000 images were collected by the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile over the course of over 13 years, from 2010 to 2023, as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV Extended Survey (VVVX). The images were combined to form the record-breaking map, which covers an area of the sky equivalent to 8,600 full moons (as seen from Earth). For context, it contains ten times more objects than a similar 2012 map released by the same team of scientists.
"We made so many discoveries we have changed the view of our galaxy forever," project leader Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at the Universidad Andrés Bello, said in a statement.
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https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2413/
zoomable
NGC 3603 in Hubble-like resolution - But the entire galaxy...crazy.
ultrazoom: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/540 ... 981b_o.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/540 ... 90a8_o.jpg
Original data: ESO (VISTA-VVVX) jac berne (flickr)
BSN4Y Jac