eso_eso1033d August 11th, 2010
Credit: ESO/M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
The left-hand panel shows the region around the Tarantula Nebula in visible light. Most of the light from the spectacular clouds comes from hydrogen gas glowing under the fierce ultraviolet glare from the central hot young stars. This visible light image was obtained with Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. On the right VISTA’s new infrared view is shown. By observing in infrared light a subtly different view of the nebula is revealed. As the infrared wavelengths can pass through the obscuring clouds of interstellar dust more easily than visible light, the VISTA image reveals the stars at the centres of the nebulae more clearly.
Provider: European Southern Observatory
Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1033d/
Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Telescope | Spectral Band | Wavelength | |
---|---|---|---|
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VIRCAM) | Infrared (Y) | - | |
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VIRCAM) | Infrared (J) | - | |
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VIRCAM) | Optical (V) | - | |
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VIRCAM) | Optical (Oiii) | - | |
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VIRCAM) | Infrared (K) | - | |
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VIRCAM) | Optical (H-alpha) | - | |
VISTA data refers to the right image, WFI data to the left image. |
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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