European Association for Astronomy Education

Source: ESO Science Release eso1545

Massive galaxies discovered in the early Universe.
Image credits:ESO/UltraVISTA team.
Acknowledgement: TERAPIX/CNRS/INSU/CASU

ESO’s VISTA survey telescope has spied a horde of previously hidden massive galaxies that existed when the Universe was in its infancy. By discovering and studying more of these galaxies than ever before, astronomers have, for the first time, found out exactly when such monster galaxies first appeared.(read more)

Source: ESO Photo Release eso1504

Image cVISTA views the Trifid Nebula and reveals hidden variable stars.
Image credit: ESO/VVV consortium/D. Minniti

A new image taken with ESO’s VISTA survey telescope reveals the famous Trifid Nebula in a new and ghostly light. By observing in infrared light, astronomers can see right through the dust-filled central parts of the Milky Way and spot many previously hidden objects. In just this tiny part of one of the VISTA surveys, astronomers have discovered two unknown and very distant Cepheid variable stars that lie almost directly behind the Trifid. They are the first such stars found that lie in the central plane of the Milky Way beyond its central bulge. (learn more)

Source: ESO Science Release eso1339

Artist's impression of the central bulge of the Milky Way.
Image credits: ESO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Kornmesser/R. Hurt.

Two groups of astronomers have used data from ESO telescopes to make the best three-dimensional map yet of the central parts of the Milky Way. They have found that the inner regions take on a peanut-like, or X-shaped, appearance from some angles. This odd shape was mapped by using public data from ESO’s VISTA survey telescope along with measurements of the motions of hundreds of very faint stars in the central bulge.(read more)

Source: ESO Photo Release eso1242

VISTA gigapixel mosaic of the central parts of the Milky Way.
Image credits:ESO/VVV Consortium
Acknowledgement: Ignacio Toledo, Martin Kornmesser

 Using a whopping nine-gigapixel image from the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, an international team of astronomers has created a catalogue of more than 84 million stars in the central parts of the Milky Way. This gigantic dataset contains more than ten times more stars than previous studies and is a major step forward for the understanding of our home galaxy. The image gives viewers an incredible, zoomable view of the central part of our galaxy. It is so large that, if printed with the resolution of a typical book, it would be 9 metres long and 7 metres tall. (read more)

Source: ESO Photo Release eso1213

VISTA stares deep into the cosmos.
Image credits: ESO/UltraVISTA team.
Acknowledgement: TERAPIX/CNRS/INSU/CASU

ESO's VISTA telescope has created the widest deep view of the sky ever made using infrared light. This new picture of an unremarkable patch of sky comes from the UltraVISTA survey and reveals more than 200 000 galaxies. It forms just one part of a huge collection of fully processed images from all the VISTA surveys that is now being made available by ESO to astronomers worldwide. UltraVISTA is a treasure trove that is being used to study distant galaxies in the early Universe as well as for many other science projects. (read more)

Source: ESO Photo Release eso1205

VISTA has captured this unusual view of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293).
Image credits: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson.
Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

ESO’s VISTA telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, has captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. This picture, taken in infrared light, reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are invisible in images taken in visible light, as well as bringing to light a rich background of stars and galaxies. (read more)

Source: ESO Science Release eso1128

VISTA Finds Star Clusters Galore.
Image credits: ESO/J. Borissova.

Using data from the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, an international team of astronomers has discovered 96 new open star clusters hidden by the dust in the Milky Way. These tiny and faint objects were invisible to previous surveys, but they could not escape the sensitive infrared detectors of the world’s largest survey telescope, which can peer through the dust. This is the first time so many faint and small clusters have been found at once. (read more)