The star formation region Messier 8 in the constellation of Sagittarius
Wide-field view of the Lagoon Nebula
Excerpts from a VST image of the Lagoon Nebula
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Videos
VST images the Lagoon Nebula
The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO's
Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured this richly detailed new image
of the Lagoon Nebula. This giant cloud of gas and dust is creating
intensely bright young stars, and is home to young stellar clusters.
This image is a tiny part of just one of eleven public surveys of the
sky now in progress using ESO telescopes. Together these are providing a
vast legacy of publicly available data for the global astronomical
community.
The Lagoon Nebula is an intriguing object located around 5000
light-years from us in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer).
Also known as Messier 8, it is a giant cloud 100 light-years across,
where new stars are forming within its plumes of gas and dust [1]. This new 16 000-pixel-wide image is from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), one of two dedicated survey telescopes at ESO's Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. A zoomable version of the image allows the viewers to explore the many nooks and crannies of this fascinating object.
The VST was not pointed at the Lagoon deliberately, it simply was included as part of a huge imaging survey called VPHAS+
that covered a much larger region of the Milky Way. VPHAS+ is just one
of three imaging surveys using visible light with the VST. These are
complemented by six infrared surveys with the VISTA survey telescope.
The surveys are addressing many important questions in modern
astronomy. These include the nature of dark energy, searching for
brilliant quasars in the early Universe, probing the structure of the
Milky Way and looking for unusual and hidden objects, studying the
neighbouring Magellanic Clouds in great detail, and many other topics.
History shows that surveys often find things that are unexpected and
these surprises are crucial for the progress of astronomical research.
As well as the nine imaging surveys with VISTA and the VST there are
also two additional surveys that are in progress using other ESO
telescopes. One, the Gaia-ESO Survey, is using the Very Large Telescope at Paranal to map the properties of more than 100 000 stars in the Milky Way, and another (PESSTO) is following up on transient objects such as supernovae using the New Technology Telescope at La Silla [2].
Some of these surveys began back in 2010, and some much more
recently, but data from all of them are now being made public and are
accessible to astronomers around the world through ESO's archive [3].
Although they are still in progress, the surveys are already allowing
astronomers to make many discoveries. Just a few of these new results
include new star clusters found in the VVV survey (eso1128, eso1141), the best map yet of the central parts of our Milky Way (eso1242, eso1339), a very deep view of the infrared sky (eso1213) and, very recently, some of the most distant quasars discovered so far (from the VISTA VIKING survey).
The ESO Public Surveys will continue for many years, and their
astronomical legacy value will stretch many decades into the future.
Notes
[1] ESO has produced several stunning
views of this object before — most notably a huge 370-megapixel image as
part of the GigaGalaxy Zoom project (eso0936) — and has also provided a completely different view from the VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) VVV survey, which explored the Lagoon's mysteries in the infrared (eso1101).
[2] More information about all eleven surveys are available here and a comprehensive description of their current status and results is given in a dedicated section of the latest ESO Messenger.
[3] An overview of the data releases from the eleven ESO public survey projects is also available.
More information
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental
astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive
ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 15
countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious
programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful
ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make
important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in
promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO
operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla,
Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large
Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical
observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and
is the world's largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is
the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in
visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary
astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in
existence. ESO is currently planning the 39-metre European Extremely
Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the
world's biggest eye on the sky”.
Links
Contacts
Richard HookESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
