An infrared view of the NGC 6188 nebula and the NGC 6193 cluster

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 harbours a cluster of young stars called NGC 6193. The image was captured by ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ― with its infrared camera VIRCAM. The image is part of a giant infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects. The data for this map were gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX).