Never-before-seen objects revealed in new infrared atlas of five nearby star-forming regions

Astronomers, using the European Southern Observatory's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), have created a vast infrared atlas of five nearby star factories by stitching together more than 1 million images. These star-forming regions are less than 1500 light-years away and span a huge area in the sky.

A team, led by Stefan Meingast, an astronomer at the University of Vienna in Austria, observed star-forming regions in the constellations of Orion, Ophiuchus, Chamaeleon, Corona Australis and Lupus as part of a survey called VISIONS (short for VISTA Star Formation Atlas).

Over the course of five years, the team acquired over a million images, which were subsequently assembled into the expansive mosaics presented here, unveiling vast cosmic landscapes that show intricate panoramas that encompass shadowy dust formations, luminous clouds, recently-formed stars, and the distant backdrop of Milky Way's stars.

The images were captured using VISTA's infrared camera, VIRCAM, which can observe an area as large as 3x3 full Moons.

"In these images we can detect even the faintest sources of light, like stars far less massive than the Sun, revealing objects that no one has ever seen before. This will allow us to understand the processes that transform gas and dust into stars," says Stefan Meingast.

Using VISIONS data, astronomers will also be able to study how young stars move.

"With VISIONS we monitor these baby stars over several years, allowing us to measure their motion and learn how they leave their parent clouds," explains João Alves, an astronomer at the University of Vienna and Principal Investigator of VISIONS.

✨ Explore the hidden views of stellar nurseries! ✨ Using ESO's VISTA telescope, astronomers have created a vast infrared atlas of 5 nearby stellar nurseries by piecing together more than one million images! 1/📷 ESO/Meingast et al. pic.twitter.com/XTefiUeERr

— ESO (@ESO) May 11, 2023