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Astronomers Unveil Unprecedented Infrared Map of Our Milky Way

Jessica McCarthy
Most Detailed Infrared Map of the Milky Way Highlights
This collage highlights a small selection of regions of the Milky Way imaged as part of the most detailed infrared map ever of our galaxy. Here we see, from left to right and top to bottom: NGC 3576, NGC 6357, Messier 17, NGC 6188, Messier 22, and NGC 3603. All of them are clouds of gas and dust where stars are forming, except Messier 22, which is a very dense group of old stars. Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

In a monumental achievement, astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope have created the most comprehensive infrared map of the Milky Way, featuring over 1.5 billion cosmic objects.

This map, derived from 500 terabytes of data collected over 13 years, reveals hidden stars, moving celestial bodies, and distant clusters, transforming our understanding of the galaxy.

Messier 17 Nebula Infrared View
This image shows a detailed infrared view of Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or Swan Nebula, a stellar nursery located about 5500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. This image is part of a record-breaking infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects. Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

A Milestone in Astronomy

Astronomers have published an immense infrared map of the Milky Way featuring over 1.5 billion objects ― the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope over a span of more than 13 years, the team monitored the central regions of our galaxy. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational endeavor ever carried out with an ESO telescope.

“We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our galaxy forever,” says Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile who led the overall project.

NGC 6188 Nebula and NGC 6193 Cluster Infrared View
This is an infrared image of NGC 6188, also known as the Firebird Nebula, located about 4100 light-years away in the constellation Ara. This gas cloud harbors a cluster of young stars called NGC 6193. Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

Unveiling Hidden Cosmic Features

This record-breaking map comprises 200,000 images taken by ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. Located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, the telescope’s main purpose is to map large areas of the sky. The team used VISTA’s infrared camera VIRCAM, which can peer through the dust and gas that permeates our galaxy. It is therefore able to see the radiation from the Milky Way’s most hidden places, opening a unique window onto our galactic surroundings.

Lobster Nebula ESO VISTA Telescope
This image from ESO’s VISTA telescope captures a celestial landscape of vast, glowing clouds of gas and tendrils of dust surrounding hot young stars. This infrared view reveals the stellar nursery known as NGC 6357 in a new light. Credit: ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti. Acknowledgment: Ignacio Toledo

This gigantic dataset[1] covers an area of the sky equivalent to 8600 full moons, and contains about 10 times more objects than a previous map released by the same team back in 2012. It includes newborn stars, which are often embedded in dusty cocoons, and globular clusters – dense groups of millions of the oldest stars in the Milky Way. Observing infrared light means VISTA can also spot very cold objects, which glow at these wavelengths, like brown dwarfs (‘failed’ stars that do not have sustained nuclear fusion) or free-floating planets that don’t orbit a star.

This video sequence compares infrared and visible light views of the Lobster Nebula (NGC 6357). The visible light image created from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 and, for the central part, the ESO VLT. The new infrared image was taken with the VISTA telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. In the infrared, the dust that obscures many stars becomes nearly transparent, revealing a whole host of new stars that are otherwise invisible. Credit: ESO/VVV Survey/Digitized Sky Survey 2/D. Minniti. Acknowledgment: Ignacio Toledo. Music: movetwo

A New Dimension to Galactic Understanding

The observations began in 2010 and ended in the first half of 2023, spanning a total of 420 nights. By observing each patch of the sky many times, the team was able to not only determine the locations of these objects, but also track how they move and whether their brightness changes. They charted stars whose luminosity changes periodically that can be used as cosmic rulers for measuring distances.[2]

This has given us an accurate 3D view of the inner regions of the Milky Way, which were previously hidden by dust. The researchers also tracked hypervelocity stars — fast-moving stars catapulted from the central region of the Milky Way after a close encounter with the supermassive black hole lurking there.

Messier 22 Globular Cluster Infrared View
This is an infrared view of the Messier 22 globular cluster, a densely packed group of very old stars located about 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

Legacy and Future Prospects

The new map contains data gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey[3] and its companion project, the VVV eXtended (VVVX) survey. “The project was a monumental effort, made possible because we were surrounded by a great team,” says Roberto Saito, an astrophysicist at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil and lead author of the paper published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics on the completion of the project.

VISTA’s View on Stellar Births
This image shows a new view of NGC 3603 (left) and NGC 3576 (right), two stunning nebulas imaged with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). This infrared image peers through the dust in these nebulas, revealing details hidden in optical images. NGC 3603 and NGC 3576 are 22,000 and 9,000 lightyears away from us, respectively. Inside these extended clouds of dust and gas, new stars are born, gradually changing the shapes of the nebulas via intense radiation and powerful winds of charged particles. Given their proximity, astronomers have the opportunity to study the intense star formation process that is as common in other galaxies but harder to observe due to the vast distances. Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

The VVV and VVVX surveys have already led to more than 300 scientific articles. With the surveys now complete, the scientific exploration of the gathered data will continue for decades to come. Meanwhile, ESO’s Paranal Observatory is being prepared for the future: VISTA will be updated with its new instrument 4MOST and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) will receive its MOONS instrument. Together, they will provide spectra of millions of the objects surveyed here, with countless discoveries to be expected.

VVV and VVVX Surveys Milky Way Area Mapped
This image shows the regions of the Milky Way mapped by the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX). The total area covered is equivalent to 8600 full moons. The Milky Way comprises a central bulge — a dense, bright, and puffed-up conglomeration of stars — and a flat disc around it. Red squares mark the central areas of our galaxy originally covered by VVV and later re-observed by VVVX: most of the bulge and part of the disc at one side of it.
The other squares indicate regions observed only as part of the extended VVVX survey: even more regions of the disc at both sides (yellow and green), areas of the disc above and below the plane of the galaxy (dark blue) and above and below the bulge (light blue). The numbers indicate the galactic longitude and latitude, which astronomers use to chart objects in our galaxy. The names of various constellations are also shown.
Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

Notes

  1. The dataset is too large to release as a single image, but the processed data and objects catalog can be accessed in the ESO Science Portal.
  2. One way to measure the distance to a star is by comparing how bright it appears as seen from Earth to how intrinsically bright it is; but the latter is often unknown. Certain types of stars change their brightness periodically, and there is a very strong connection between how quickly they do this and how intrinsically luminous they are. Measuring these fluctuations allows astronomers to work out how luminous these stars are, and therefore how far away they lie.
  3. Vía Láctea is the Latin name for the Milky Way.

Reference: “The VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea extended (VVVX) ESO public survey: Completion of the observations and legacy” by R. K. Saito, M. Hempel, J. Alonso-García, P. W. Lucas, D. Minniti, S. Alonso, L. Baravalle, J. Borissova, C. Caceres, A. N. Chené, N. J. G. Cross, F. Duplancic, E. R. Garro, M. Gómez, V. D. Ivanov, R. Kurtev, A. Luna, D. Majaess, M. G. Navarro, J. B. Pullen, M. Rejkuba, J. L. Sanders, L. C. Smith, P. H. C. Albino, M. V. Alonso, E. B. Amôres, R. Angeloni, J. I. Arias, M. Arnaboldi, B. Barbuy, A. Bayo, J. C. Beamin, L. R. Bedin, A. Bellini, R. A. Benjamin, E. Bica, C. J. Bonatto, E. Botan, V. F. Braga, D. A. Brown, J. B. Cabral, D. Camargo, A. Caratti o Garatti, J. A. Carballo-Bello, M. Catelan, C. Chavero, M. A. Chijani, J. J. Clariá, G. V. Coldwell, C. Contreras Peña, R. Contreras Ramos, J. M. Corral-Santana, C. C. Cortés, M. Cortés-Contreras, P. Cruz, I. V. Daza-Perilla, V. P. Debattista, B. Dias, L. Donoso, R. D’Souza, J. P. Emerson, S. Federle, V. Fermiano, J. Fernandez, J. G. Fernández-Trincado, T. Ferreira, C. E. Ferreira Lopes, V. Firpo, C. Flores-Quintana, L. Fraga, D. Froebrich, D. Galdeano, I. Gavignaud, D. Geisler, O. E. Gerhard, W. Gieren, O. A. Gonzalez, L. V. Gramajo, F. Gran, P. M. Granitto, M. Griggio, Z. Guo, S. Gurovich, M. Hilker, H. R. A. Jones, R. Kammers, M. A. Kuhn, M. S. N. Kumar, R. Kundu, M. Lares, M. Libralato, E. Lima, T. J. Maccarone, P. Marchant Cortés, E. L. Martin, N. Masetti, N. Matsunaga, F. Mauro, I. McDonald, A. Mejías, V. Mesa, F. P. Milla-Castro, J. H. Minniti, C. Moni Bidin, K. Montenegro, C. Morris, V. Motta, F. Navarete, C. Navarro Molina, F. Nikzat, J. L. Nilo Castellón, C. Obasi, M. Ortigoza-Urdaneta, T. Palma, C. Parisi, K. Pena Ramírez, L. Pereyra, N. Perez, I. Petralia, A. Pichel, G. Pignata, S. Ramírez Alegría, A. F. Rojas, D. Rojas, A. Roman-Lopes, A. C. Rovero, S. Saroon, E. O. Schmidt, A. C. Schröder, M. Schultheis, M. A. Sgró, E. Solano, M. Soto, B. Stecklum, D. Steeghs, M. Tamura, P. Tissera, A. A. R. Valcarce, C. A. Valotto, S. Vasquez, C. Villalon, S. Villanova, F. Vivanco Cádiz, R. Zelada Bacigalupo, A. Zijlstra and M. Zoccali, 26 September 2024, Astronomy & Astrophysics.
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202450584

The team is composed of R. K. Saito (Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil [UFSC]), M. Hempel (Instituto de Astrofísica, Dep. de Ciencias Físicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Andres Bello, Providencia, Chile [ASTROUNAB] and Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany), J. Alonso-García (Centro de Astronomía, Universidad de Antofagasta, Antofagasta, Chile [CITEVA] and Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, Providencia, Chile [MAS]), P. W. Lucas (Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom [CAR]), D. Minniti (ASTROUNAB; Vatican Observatory, Vatican City, Vatican City State [VO] and UFSC), S. Alonso (Departamento de Geofísica y Astronomía, CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Rivadavia, Argentina [UNSJ-CONICET]), L. Baravalle (Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental, Córdoba, Argentina [IATE-CONICET]; Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina [OAC]), J. Borissova (Instituto de Física y Astronomía, Universidad de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile [IFA-UV] and MAS), C. Caceres (ASTROUNAB), A. N. Chené (Gemini Observatory, Northern Operations Center, Hilo, USA), N. J. G. Cross (Wide-Field Astronomy Unit, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, United Kingdom), F. Duplancic (UNSJ-CONICET), E. R. Garro (European Southern Observatory, Vitacura, Chile [ESO Chile]), M. Gómez (ASTROUNAB), V. D. Ivanov (European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München [ESO Germany]), R. Kurtev (IFA-UV and MAS), A. Luna (INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Napoli, Italy [INAF- OACN]), D. Majaess (Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Canada), M. G. Navarro (INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy [INAF-OAR]), J. B. Pullen (ASTROUNAB), M. Rejkuba (ESO Germany), J. L. Sanders (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, United Kingdom), L. C. Smith (Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom), P. H. C. Albino (UFSC), M. V. Alonso (IATE-CONICET and OAC), E. B. Amôres (Departamento de Física, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana, Brazil), E. B. R. Angeloni (Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab, La Serena, Chile [NOIRLab]), J. I. Arias (Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile [ULS]), M. Arnaboldi (ESO Germany), B. Barbuy (Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil), A. Bayo (ESO Germany), J. C. Beamin (ASTROUNAB and Fundación Chilena de Astronomía, Santiago, Chile), L. R. Bedin (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Padova, Italy [INAF-OAPd]), A. Bellini (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA [STScI]), R. A. Benjamin (Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, USA), E. Bica (Departamento de Astronomia, Instituto de Física, Porto Alegre, Brazil [IF – UFRGS]), C. J. Bonatto (IF – UFRGS), E. Botan (Instituto de Ciências Naturais, Humanas e Sociais, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Sinop, Brazil), V. F. Braga (INAF-OAR), D. A. Brown (Vatican Observatory, Tucson, USA), J. B. Cabral (IATE-CONICET and Gerencia De Vinculación Tecnológica, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, Córdoba, Argentina), D. Camargo (Colégio Militar de Porto Alegre, Ministério da Defesa, Exército Brasileiro, Brazil), A. Caratti o Garatti (INAF- OACN), J. A. Carballo-Bello (Instituto de Alta Investigación, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile [IAI-UTA]), M.Catelan (Instituto de Astrofísica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile [Instituto de Astrofísica UC]; MAS and Centro de Astro-Ingeniería, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile [AIUC]), C. Chavero (OAC and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científica y Técnicas, Ciudad Autónoma de buenos Aires, Argentina [CONICET]), M. A. Chijani (ASTROUNAB), J. J. Clariá (OAC and CONICET), G. V. Coldwell (UNSJ-CONICET), C. Contreras Peña (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea and Research Institute of Basic Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea), C. R. Contreras Ramos (Instituto de Astrofísica UC and MAS), J. M. Corral-Santana (ESO Chile), C. C. Cortés (Departamento de Tecnologías Industriales, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Talca, Curicó, Chile), M. Cortés-Contreras (Departamento de Física de la Tierra y Astrofísica & Instituto de Física de Partículas y del Cosmos de la UCM, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain), P. Cruz (Centro de Astrobiología, CSIC-INTA, Madrid, Spain [CAB]), I. V. Daza-Perilla (CONICET; IATE-CONICET and Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía, Física y Computación, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina), V. P. Debattista (University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom), B. Dias (ASTROUNAB), L. Donoso (Instituto de Ciencias Astronómicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio, San Juan, Argentina), R. D’Souza (VO), J. P. Emerson (Astronomy Unit, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom), S. Federle (ESO Chile and ASTROUNAB), V. Fermiano (UFSC), J. Fernandez (UNSJ-CONICET), J. G. Fernández-Trincado (Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile [IA-UCN]), T. Ferreira (Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, USA), C. E. Ferreira Lopes (Instituto de Astronomía y Ciencias Planetarias, Universidad de Atacama, Copiapó, Chile [INCT] and MAS), V. Firpo (NOIRLab), C. Flores-Quintana (ASTROUNAB and MAS), L. Fraga (Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofísica, Itajubá, Brazil), D.Froebrich (Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom), D. Galdeano (UNSJ-CONICET), I. Gavignaud (ASTROUNAB), D. Geisler (Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Concepción, Chile [UdeC]; Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigación y Postgrado, Universidad de La Serena, Chile [IMIP-ULS] and ULS), O. E.Gerhard (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany [MPE]), W. Gieren (UdeC), O. A. Gonzalez (UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom), L. V. Gramajo (OAC and CONICET), F. Gran (Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, Nice, France [Lagrange]), P. M. Granitto (Centro Internacional Franco Argentino de Ciencias de la Información y de Sistemas, Rosario, Argentina), M. Griggio (INAF-OAPd; Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy and STScI), Z. Guo (IFA-UV and MAS), S. Gurovich (IATE-CONICET and Western Sydney University, Kingswood, Australia), M. Hilker (ESO Germany), H. R. A. Jones (CAR), R. Kammers (UFSC), M. A. Kuhn (CAR), M. S. N. Kumar (Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal), R. Kundu (Miranda House, University of Delhi, India and Inter University centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India), M. Lares (IATE-CONICET), M. Libralato (INAF-OAPd), E. Lima (Universidade Federal do Pampa, Uruguaiana, Brazil), T. J. Maccarone (Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA), P. Marchant Cortés (ULS), E. L. Martin (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias and Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, San Cristóbal de la Laguna, Spain), N. Masetti (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, Bologna, Italy and ASTROUNAB), N. Matsunaga (Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan), F. Mauro (IA-UCN), I. McDonald (Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, The University of Manchester, UK [JBCA]), A. Mejías (Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, Las Condes, Chile), V. Mesa (IMIP-ULS; Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Chile, Grupo de Astrofísica Extragaláctica-IANIGLA; CONICET, and Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina), F. P. Milla-Castro (ULS), J. H. Minniti (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA), C. Moni Bidin (IA-UCN), K. Montenegro (Clínica Universidad de los Andes, Santiago, Chile), C. Morris (CAR), V. Motta (OAC), F. Navarete (SOAR Telescope/NSF’s NOIRLab, La Serena, Chile), C. Navarro Molina (Centro de Docencia Superior en Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Austral de Chile, Puerto Montt, Chile), F. Nikzat (Instituto de Astrofísica UC and MAS), J. L. NiloCastellón (IMIP-ULS and ULS), C. Obasi (IA-UCN and Centre for Basic Space Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria), M. Ortigoza-Urdaneta (Departamento de Matemática, Universidad de Atacama, Copiapó, Chile), T. Palma (OAC), C. Parisi (OAC and IATE-CONICET), K. Pena Ramírez (NSF NOIRLab/Vera C. Rubin Observatory, La Serena, Chile), L. Pereyra (IATE-CONICET), N. Perez (UNSJ-CONICET), I. Petralia (ASTROUNAB), A. Pichel (Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina [IAFE-CONICET]), G. Pignata (IAI-UTA), S. Ramírez Alegría (CITEVA), A. F. Rojas (Instituto de Astrofísica UC, Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile and CITEVA), D. Rojas (ASTROUNAB), A. Roman-Lopes (ULS), A. C. Rovero (IAFE-CONICET), S. Saroon (ASTROUNAB), E. O. Schmidt (OAC and IATE-CONICET), A. C. Schröder (MPE), M. Schultheis (Lagrange), M. A. Sgró (OAC), E. Solano (CAB), M. Soto (INCT), B. Stecklum (Thüringer Landessternwarte, Tautenburg, Germany), D. Steeghs (Department of Physics, University of Warwick, UK), M. Tamura (Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo; Astrobiology Center, Tokyo, Japan, and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan), P. Tissera (Instituto de Astrofísica UC and AIUC), A. A. R. Valcarce (Departamento de Física, Universidad de Tarapacá, Chile), C. A. Valotto (IATE-CONICET and OAC), S. Vasquez (Museo Interactivo de la Astronomía, La Granja, Chile), C. Villalon (IATE-CONICET and OAC), S. Villanova (UdeC), F. Vivanco Cádiz (ASTROUNAB), R. Zelada Bacigalupo (North Optics, La Serena, Chile), A. Zijlstra (JBCA and School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia), and M. Zoccali (Instituto de Astrofísica UC and MAS).

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