Variable stars close to the galactic centre
eso_eso1636a October 12th, 2016
Credit: ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti
This image, captured with the VISTA infrared survey telescope, as part of the Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO public survey, shows the central part of the Milky Way. While normally hidden behind obscuring dust, the infrared capabilities of VISTA allow to study the stars close to the galactic centre. Within this field of view astronomers detected several ancient stars, of a type known as RR Lyrae. As RR Lyrae stars typically reside in ancient stellar populations over 10 billion years old, this discovery suggests that the bulging centre of the Milky Way likely grew through the merging of primordial star clusters.
Provider: European Southern Observatory
Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1636a/
Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- eso1636a
- Subject Category
- B.3.2.1
- Subject Name
- RR Lyr
- Credits
- ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti
- Release Date
- 2016-10-12T12:00:00
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1636a/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy
- Instrument
- VIRCAM, VIRCAM, VIRCAM
- Color Assignment
- Red, Green, Blue
- Band
- Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
- Bandpass
- Ks, H, J
- Central Wavelength
- 2150, 1650, 1250
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 265.964806294, -29.2966065816
- Reference Dimension
- 15591.0, 12672.0
- Reference Pixel
- 7795.5, 6336.0
- Scale
- -9.46640663143e-05, 9.46640663143e-05
- Rotation
- 58.559999999999931
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- European Southern Observatory
- URL
- http://www.eso.org
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
- City
- Garching bei München
- State/Province
- Postal Code
- D-85748
- Country
- Germany
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- European Southern Observatory
- Publisher ID
- eso
- Resource ID
- eso1636a
- Resource URL
- https://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/original/eso1636a.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2016-10-06T17:33:07+02:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
