May 9, 2011 - VISTA Cuts through the Dust

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The Week in Space

May 9-15, 2011

VISTA Cuts through Dust One of the newest telescopes at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile is a versatile telescope that can see through the dust that abounds in interstellar space. The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) is a survey telescope with an attached 67-megapixel camera. VISTA’s first image was of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), a spectacular star-forming cloud of gas and dust in the familiar constellation of Orion, and its surroundings. In visible light the core of the object is hidden behind thick clouds of dust, but VISTA’s infrared image penetrated the murk to reveal the cluster of hot young stars hidden within. The wide field of view of the VISTA camera also captures the glow of NGC 2023, below center, and the ghostly form of the Horsehead Nebula, at lower right.

Image credit: ESO / J. Emerson / VISTA / Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit