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Fox News
First Images Unveiled from New VISTA Telescope
London Times
A new telescope designed by British scientists has released its first images, revealing spectacular views of both the Milky Way and distant galaxies.
The stunning pictures of the Flame Nebula, the center of the Milky Way and the Fornax Galaxy Cluster show that Vista — the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy — is working well.
Vista is the largest and most powerful telescope yet built for surveying the sky using infrared light, which allows it to peer through clouds of dust that obscure many celestial structures when viewed in the visible spectrum.
The telescope — which cost $60 million — at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile, was developed and built by a consortium of 18 British universities, and was formally handed over for operations this week.
Its image of the Flame Nebula, a star-forming cloud of gas and dust in the constellation Orion, shows off Vista’s capabilities particularly well. When observed with visible light, the Nebula’s core is hidden by dust, but infrared light has revealed the cluster of hot young stars at its heart.
A new image of the centre of the Milky Way, in the constellation Sagittarius, has been assembed from two Vista views, which have again penetrated opaque clouds to show about a million stars in a single picture.
The image of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster shows off Vista’s wide angle of view, which has allowed multiple galaxies to be seen in a single shot.
Vista, which sits adjacent to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), will be used to study the nature and distribution of stars and galaxies of different types, as well as the underlying structure of the Universe.
It will also investigate the mysterious “dark matter” and “dark energy” that are known to make up much of the Universe’s mass, but which have not yet been directly observed.
Professor Jim Emerson, of Queen Mary, University of London, who leads the Vista consortium, said its most exciting discoveries would probably be unanticipated. “History has shown us that the most exciting things that come out of projects like Vista are what you least expect — and I’m very excited to see what these will be,” he said.
Flame Nebula
Fox News
First Images Unveiled from New VISTA Telescope
London Times
A new telescope designed by British scientists has released its first images, revealing spectacular views of both the Milky Way and distant galaxies.
The stunning pictures of the Flame Nebula, the center of the Milky Way and the Fornax Galaxy Cluster show that Vista — the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy — is working well.
Vista is the largest and most powerful telescope yet built for surveying the sky using infrared light, which allows it to peer through clouds of dust that obscure many celestial structures when viewed in the visible spectrum.
The telescope — which cost $60 million — at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile, was developed and built by a consortium of 18 British universities, and was formally handed over for operations this week.
Its image of the Flame Nebula, a star-forming cloud of gas and dust in the constellation Orion, shows off Vista’s capabilities particularly well. When observed with visible light, the Nebula’s core is hidden by dust, but infrared light has revealed the cluster of hot young stars at its heart.
A new image of the centre of the Milky Way, in the constellation Sagittarius, has been assembed from two Vista views, which have again penetrated opaque clouds to show about a million stars in a single picture.
The image of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster shows off Vista’s wide angle of view, which has allowed multiple galaxies to be seen in a single shot.
Vista, which sits adjacent to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), will be used to study the nature and distribution of stars and galaxies of different types, as well as the underlying structure of the Universe.
It will also investigate the mysterious “dark matter” and “dark energy” that are known to make up much of the Universe’s mass, but which have not yet been directly observed.
Professor Jim Emerson, of Queen Mary, University of London, who leads the Vista consortium, said its most exciting discoveries would probably be unanticipated. “History has shown us that the most exciting things that come out of projects like Vista are what you least expect — and I’m very excited to see what these will be,” he said.
Flame Nebula
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