This is the first image released from the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The new 4.1 m telescope is installed at ESO's Paranal Observatory, in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, next to the Very Large Telescope. VISTA was developed by a consortium of 18 universities in the UK led by Queen Mary, University of London. A 3 tonne infrared camera with a total of 67 million pixels provides wide images covering about 10 times the area of the full Moon. This infrared image shows the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), a spectacular star-forming cloud of gas and dust in the Orion constellation. The famous Horsehead Nebula is seen best in the corresponding inset image taken
in visible light.
Image credit: ESO/J Emerson/VISTA and Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.
CERN Courier
Jan 20, 2010
Picture of the month
About the author
Compiled by Marc Türler, INTEGRAL Science Data Centre and Observatory of Geneva University.