How are stars formed? New ESO project provides insights
A gigantic cloud of gas and dust floats through space. Slowly, under the constant influence of gravity, agglomerations form. In a fascinating cosmic process that still poses many mysteries to scientists, suns and planets are formed throughout the cosmos. Over the last five years, researchers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have created one of the largest star formation maps to date in a mammoth astronomical project: the VISIONS Atlas.
New insights …
… and wonderful insights
As Stefan Meingast, lead author of the new study and an astronomer at the University of Vienna, writes in a paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics, his team has examined five nearby star-forming regions with unprecedented accuracy. The result: 1 million images assembled into a huge infrared atlas of star births. “In these images we can see even the faintest light sources, such as stars that are far less massive than the Sun. This allows us to discover objects that have never been seen before,” says Stefan Meingast. “This allows us to understand the processes that turn gas and dust into stars.”
The atlas includes the constellations Orion, Ophiuchus, Chamleon, Corona Australis and Lupus. They are all less than 1500 light-years away from our solar system and cover a huge area in the sky due to their size. The team was also able to benefit from the technical properties of the VISTA telescope used and the VIRCAM infrared camera at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. “The diameter of the VIRCAM field of view is as large as three full moons, making it uniquely suited for mapping these vast regions.”
Busy for years
However, the half decade that Meingast and his team invested in the atlas is only the preparatory work for a large number of other projects that build on the findings. According to co-author Monika Petr-Gotzens, astronomer at ESO, the VISIONS atlas will keep astronomers “occupied for years to come”. Among other things, it lays the foundation for future observations with ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), due for completion in Chile this decade.
- ESO creates gigantic project to study star formation: VISIONS Atlas
- ESO’s VISTA telescope and VIRCAM camera deployed in Chile
- 1 million images result in huge infrared atlas for star births
- Five star-forming regions examined
- Results Basis for further projects, including ELT
- Research will ‘keep astronomers busy for years to come’
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