1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:08,000 A new telescope for mapping the sky is starting work at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:10,000 and has just released its first images. 3 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:16,000 It’s called VISTA, or the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:21,000 and it’s the largest and most powerful infrared survey telescope ever built. 5 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:27,000 This is the ESOcast! 6 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:32,000 Cutting-edge science and life behind the scenes of ESO, the European Southern Observatory. 7 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:39,000 Exploring the universe’s ultimate frontier with our host Dr J, aka Dr Joe Liske. 8 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,000 Hello and welcome to another episode of the ESOcast. 9 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:50,000 Now even for an observatory like ESO, it’s a special occasion when a new telescope starts operations. 10 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:58,000 VISTA is the first survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal observatory and is dedicated to mapping the sky at infrared wavelengths. 11 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:04,000 It will chart the southern sky to much greater depth and with much greater sharpness than has ever been done before. 12 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000 The first images have just been released and they clearly show that VISTA is working extremely well. 13 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:20,000 Interesting things found by VISTA will form targets for detailed study 14 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:26,000 both by the neighbouring ESO telescopes — such as the four eight-metre VLT unit telescopes — 15 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:30,000 and by other observatories on Earth and in space. 16 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:37,000 VISTA will find the rare needles in the cosmic haystack and then the VLT can study these needles in great detail 17 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:42,000 so astronomers can try to understand what they are and what’s going on in the Universe. 18 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,000 “VISTA was conceived in the UK about ten years ago. 19 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:53,000 A consortium got together to get it built and it has now become an ESO telescope as part of the UK’s contribution on joining ESO.” 20 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,000 VISTA has a main mirror that is 4.1 metres across, 21 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:03,000 which makes it the largest telescope in the world that is entirely dedicated to surveying the sky. 22 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,000 The mirror is also the most highly curved of its size and quality ever made, 23 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,000 and its construction was a major challenge. 24 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,000 The telescope is housed in a dome near ESO’s VLT on Cerro Paranal, 25 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,000 which means that it shares the top-quality observing conditions of that site. 26 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:26,000 At the heart of VISTA is a 3-tonne camera containing 16 special detectors 27 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:32,000 sensitive to infrared light, with a combined total of 67 megapixels. 28 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:38,000 This huge instrument provides the widest sky coverage of any astronomical near-infrared camera. 29 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:47,000 “VISTA is a telescope with an infrared camera and this allows us to look at the sky in a way that we can’t see with an optical camera. 30 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:52,000 Specifically, infrared cameras see preferentially cool objects 31 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:56,000 objects at a higher redshift, or indeed objects that are hidden behind dust clouds.” 32 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:03,000 VISTA is performing a total of six huge surveys over the next five years. 33 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:09,000 Some focus on small patches of sky for long periods to detect extremely faint and distant objects 34 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:13,000 and others image the entire southern sky. 35 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,000 The surveys study the distribution of galaxies and galaxy clusters, 36 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,000 help unravel the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy 37 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:27,000 and look for rare objects — all the way from tiny but dangerous near-Earth asteroids 38 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,000 out to the most remote quasars in the early Universe. 39 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:37,000 Our own Milky Way galaxy and its neighbours, the Magellanic Clouds, also receive their own surveys. 40 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:44,000 VISTA generates several hundred gigabytes worth of data every night of observing. 41 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,000 That’s about as much as all of the VLT instruments put together! 42 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,000 These data flow into ESO’s archive system at its headquarters in Germany 43 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:55,000 and they are sent on to the UK for further processing. 44 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:02,000 The first images show the power of the telescope to image large areas of the sky quickly and deeply. 45 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,000 One of the first VISTA images released shows the Flame Nebula, 46 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:14,000 a spectacular region of gas and dust where stars are being formed. 47 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,000 VISTA’s infrared eyes can see through the dust 48 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,000 and reveal the cluster of hot young stars in the heart of the cloud. 49 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:32,000 At the bottom of the wide VISTA field of view the ghostly form of the Horsehead nebula is faintly visible. 50 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:47,000 VISTA has also created a dramatic view in the direction of the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. 51 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:52,000 The wide field of view of the telescope and the highly sensitive infrared detectors of its camera 52 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:57,000 allow over one million stars to be seen, many normally hidden behind dust. 53 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:09,000 The Fornax cluster of galaxies is one of the nearest rich collections of galaxies. 54 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:14,000 VISTA’s large field allows many of the cluster’s galaxies to be imaged at once 55 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:21,000 including the elegant classical barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 at the lower right. 56 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:26,000 This unique image shows several of VISTA’s impressive capabilities. 57 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,000 “VISTA’s users will be not only the European astronomers 58 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:35,000 who set up and specified these surveys in the first place, 59 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:39,000 but, because they’re public surveys, and the results will be available worldwide, 60 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:44,000 astronomers over the whole world will be using them to extract exciting results. 61 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:49,000 And, in many ways, history shows that the most exciting results that come out of things like this 62 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:52,000 are often what you least expect — obviously I don’t know what that is!” 63 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:57,000 VISTA will give astronomers an entirely new view of the southern sky 64 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:02,000 and we're all eagerly awaiting the results from this powerful new addition to ESO’s observational toolkit. 65 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,000 This is Dr J signing off for the ESOcast. 66 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:09,000 Join us again next time for another cosmic adventure. 67 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,000 ESOcast is produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. www.eso.org 68 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,000 ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy 69 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,000 designing, constructing and operating the world's most advanced ground-based telescopes. 70 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,000 Transcription by ESO ; translation by —