ESO’s Very Large Telescope peers through clouds of dust in the centre of our galaxy

This picture captured by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile is an infrared view of Sagittarius B1, a region close to the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.

The Milky Way's centre is densely populated with stars and has been suggested to have more star formation than any other place in the Milky Way. In a recent study, a team led by Francisco Nogueras Lara (MPIA Heidelberg, Germany) discovered that this region hosts an excess of young stars, with a combined mass of more than 100,000 times the mass of the Sun.

This spectacular celestial landscape of gas and dust was captured using an infrared-sensitive camera called High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager, or HAWK-I, on ESO's VLT. It comes from the GALACTICNUCLEUS survey aimed at obtaining high-resolution infrared images of the galactic centre.

Sharing the picture, ESO wrote in a post, "There is a catch: our view towards the centre is obscured by clouds of dust and gas, blocking the light from the stars. With infrared instruments, it is possible to peer through these clouds. In this image, taken with the infrared HAWK-I instrument on ESO's VLT, we get to take a closer look at this region. The view is mesmerising, unveiling a myriad of stars."

"With future infrared ESO instruments such as ERIS on the VLT and MICADO on the upcoming ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the team hopes to study the stars in greater detail, which will lead to a better understanding of the evolution of the Milky Way's centre."

1/ Our latest Picture of the Week shows an infrared view of Sagittarius B1, a region close to the centre of the Milky Way, imaged with our VLT in Chile. 🔗 https://t.co/sTpMLCemebCredit: @ESO /Nogueras-Lara et al. pic.twitter.com/IUC2hyoB5v

— ESO (@ESO) August 29, 2022