VISTA gigapixel mosaic of the central parts of the Milky Way
November 7, 2012
(Credit: ESO/VVV Consortium, Ignacio Toledo, Martin Kornmesser)
This striking view of the central parts of the Milky Way was obtained with the VISTA survey telescope at the European Southern Observatory (ESO)’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This huge picture is 108,500 by 81,500 pixels — nearly nine billion pixels. It was created by combining thousands of individual images from VISTA, taken through three different infrared filters, into a single monumental mosaic. VISTA has a camera sensitive to infrared light so it can see through much of the dust blocking the view for optical telescopes, although many more opaque dust filaments still show up well in this picture.
This image is too large to be easily displayed at full resolution and is best appreciated using the zoom tool.
Comments (7)
by Adam
I downloaded the full 25GB image. The only program that can open it is Photoshop, and it took about an hour to open the file on my high-end desktop.
The result is amazing. The FOV of the image is about 10 degrees (out of 360 for the entire view from earth), yet contains such a vast number of stars. The results from Kepler have demonstrated that many stars have orbiting planets, and though we haven’t yet found evidence of a civilization on them, it’s conceivable that extrasolar civilizations may not only exist, but be common place.
So with that in mind, while looking at this image we may be looking at millions of alien worlds.
by PacRim Jim
Where’s Ferenginar?
I need another copy of the Rules of Acquisition from Grand Nagus Rom.
by omran al-kandari
what a great galaxy we have :)
by asiwel
Yes, pretty awesome, indeed!
by Gorden Russell
This should be the cover art the next time Asimov’s “Foundation and Empire” is reprinted.
by Turk
Been my ipad background for a week or so. Considering I live in NJ, this is the only chance I get to see the Milky Way at all! Pretty amazing picture. I think the full sized file is a few gigabytes in size? Quite impressive
by rbwilli
Turk, there are actually some pretty good views of the night sky in NJ if you’re able to drive a bit and depending on where you live. (Not sure whether you can make out the Milky Way, but the overall view is beautiful.) This light pollution map is a good place to start; orange areas are good (assuming you can get away from local street lights and such), and yellow areas are even better. http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/index.php?lat=39.54217596171196&lng=-74.6630859375&zoom=9&pollution=true&selected_id=1