New Astronomy Star: The VISTA
This really is the new golden age of astronomy. Now the three telescopic stars in this new age (Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer) have been joined by another awesome new tool: VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy).
And the VISTA team is now releasing their first images, including this amazing infrared picture of the “Flame Nebula.”
This image, the first to be released publicly from VISTA, the world’s largest survey telescope, shows the spectacular star-forming region known as the Flame Nebula, or NGC 2024, in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) and its surroundings. In views of this evocative object in visible light the core of the nebula is completely hidden behind obscuring dust, but in this VISTA view, taken in infrared light, the cluster of very young stars at the object’s heart is revealed. The wide-field VISTA view also includes the glow of the reflection nebula NGC 2023, just below centre, and the ghostly outline of the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) towards the lower right. The bright bluish star towards the right is one of the three bright stars forming the Belt of Orion. The image was created from VISTA images taken through J, H and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. The image shows about half the area of the full VISTA field and is about 40 x 50 arcminutes in extent. The total exposure time was 14 minutes.
And don’t miss the zoomable version of the full resolution image, for a mind-bending view of this birthplace of stars.
(Hat tip: Phil Plait.)
Frank says: