Here is the most detailed map of the Milky Way ever!

Every time the nuclear atmosphere opens up a new spectral range for observations, astronomy and astrophysics change. Thus, radio astronomy made it possible to discover that our Milky Way was a galaxy Vortex blockedVortex blocked Today is allowed withEvent horizon telescope To see the shadow of the event horizon of things we think of as objects Supermassive black holesSupermassive black holes It contains millions or even billions of solar masses.

Through infrared observation, we can uncover the secrets of planetary birth and… The starsThe stars. And for this it was often necessary to go into space with TelescopesTelescopes Like Spitzer or Herschel, becauseAtmosphereAtmosphere – especially its water vapor content – is not conducive to good observations of part of this area WavelengthsWavelengths. However, it is possible to make discoveries using instruments installed at high altitudes and in areas where it is foundairair dry.

Vista (Visible and infrared survey telescope for astronomy) is a new telescope that has just begun operating at the Paranal Observatory of the European Southern Observatory in Chile and has released its first images. VESTA is an infrared observation telescope and is the largest observation telescope in the world. Its large mirror, wide field of view and highly sensitive detectors will reveal a whole new view of the southern sky. Stunning images of the Flame Nebula, the center of the Milky Way and the Furnace galaxy cluster show that it works very well. For a fairly accurate French translation, click on the white rectangle at the bottom right. The English translation should appear next. Then click on the nut to the right of the rectangle, then on “Translations” and finally on “Translate automatically.” Select “French”. ©ESO. Acknowledgments: J. Emerson/VISTA/UK ATC. Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser. Cinematography: Peter Rexner. Edited by: Herbert Zudet. Web and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi Shida. Written by: Richard Hook and Adam Hadazi. Host: Dr. J. Narration: Jaity Hussain. Music: John Dyson from Darklight and movetwo CD. Photos and images: ESO. Directed by: Herbert Zodette. Executive Producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen.

200,000 images covering an area of the sky equivalent to 8,600 full moons

It is precisely for these reasons that the telescope is used viewview (Visible and infrared survey telescope for astronomy)) FollowerEsoEso It was built at an altitude of 2635 meters in desertdesert Atacama in Chile, on the site of the legendary Cerro Paranal Observatory of the European Southern Observatory. VESTA is the world's largest telescope designed to study the sky from Earth at near-infrared wavelengths, allowing us to penetrate specific regions of our planet. GalaxyGalaxy It is obscured by dust and gasgas Where we find emerging stars.

More generally, Vista can also detect brilliant objects that shine at these wavelengths, such as brown dwarfs or stars Wandering planetsWandering planets Besides Spherical clustersSpherical clustersAs he explained in a press release issued by the Omani Environment Society accompanying the publication of an article in Astronomy and astrophysicsThe fruit of international cooperation by a large number of researchers, a copy of which is available in open access at arXiv.

What techniques are needed to observe celestial objects that emit infrared radiation? Those used in particular by the Webb telescope. The second episode of our mini-series Discover the universe : This time, we are interested in infrared astronomy. © Sines

We learn that AstronomersAstronomers It has produced the most detailed infrared map of the Milky Way to date. It is the result of more than 13 years of observation, as the Vista system contains more than 1.5 billion objects detected and more than 200,000 images covering an area of the sky equivalent to 8,600 km. Full moonFull moon.

Cepheids and hypervelocity stars

Thus he and his colleagues included RR Lyrae stars in our galaxy CepheidsCepheids. However, this Variable starsVariable stars They are crucial for establishing a cosmological measure of distances and, in particular, finallyNature studyDark energyDark energy. ESO's press release also states that Vista ” It allowed for an accurate three-dimensional view of the interior of the Milky Way, which was previously hidden by dust. The researchers also tracked hypervelocity stars, which are fast stars that erupted from the central region of the Milky Way after a close collision with the supermassive black hole there. “.

This panoramic video offers a closer look at a giant new image of the central parts of the Milky Way created by combining thousands of images from the European Southern Observatory's Vista telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile and comparing them to a visible light image. This infrared data, provided by the General VVV Survey, has been used to study many more individual stars in the central parts of the Milky Way than have been studied previously. Because Vista has an infrared-sensitive camera, it can see through a lot of dust that blocks the view of visible light, although several opaque dust wisps still stand out well in this image. © ESO/VVV Consortium/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org) Music: Delmo – Acoustic (disasterpeace.com) Acknowledgments: Ignacio Toledo

Fortunately, Futura knows of a member of the team who made these discoveries years ago, and we've talked about his work in several previous articles. This is Brazilian astronomer Dinelso Camargo, compatriot of Arturo Avila, who together with his Argentine colleague Dante Minniti, currently stationed in Chile, discovered three more globular clusters in the Milky Way's bulge.

He currently works at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, or UFRGS), a Brazilian federal university mainly located in Porto Alegre, he explained to us in an interview about his career “ Studying astrophysics has always been a dream of mine, but since there was no university course on it in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the only path forward was to study astrophysics. physicalphysical. She then completed her MSc, PhD and post-doc in physics at UFRGS, with astrophysics as a subfield. At first, I worked on Open star clustersOpen star clusters Known for using notes 2MASS. Using the images from 2MASS, I began to discover my first open collections, ones called Embedded Collections (EC). Then I started using WISE data to search for new open groups. Wise has become a very useful tool in researching these organisms, especially ECs, which are the ancestors of open collections. In total, it discovered 1,101 star clusters, many of which are star clusters..

So we asked him about a new infrared map of the Milky Way that contains data collected as part of the study VISTA VARIANTS IN Vía Láctea (VVV) and its complementary project, the VVV Extension Study (VVVX).

His answers will be published soon in this article.