Survey telescope VISTA, or Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, of European Southern Observatory (ESO) based in Paranal Observatory in Chile, has captured spectacular near-infrared images that offer a detailed view of the "Orion A" molecular cloud.
Orion A is a part of the giant molecular clouds in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.
The details of the survey have been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
In the paper, lead author and astrophysicist Stefan Meingast of the University of Vienna along with an array of international astronomers reveal that the new near-infrared images taken by VISTA have been fabulous and they are giving a composite view of the young stars and other stellar objects — previously unseen in the dusty clouds of Orion A.
The VISION survey images taken with VISTA telescope has delivered a massive catalog of close to 800,000 individual stars, covering many young stellar objects, and distant galaxies.
VISTA is the largest survey telescope backed by larger field view, sensitive infrared detectors for incisive and high-quality infrared images that are sought in exercises like the VISION survey.
Orion A molecular cloud is the closest known star factory to Earth and the images are great tools in studying young stars for their earliest evolutionary phases in the molecular clouds.
The newly obtained images cover the whole of the Orion A molecular cloud — one of the two giant molecular clouds in the Orion molecular cloud complex (OMC) with a broader picture of the star formation processes. At Orion A, many low and high mass stars are formed.
In the given image, one spectacular object to watch is the glorious Orion Nebula, also known as Messier 42.
Treasures In Orion A
The Orion A's dark molecular clouds have many concealed treasures including future star materials like discs known as pre-stellar discs, Herbig-Haro objects, tiny star clusters and galaxy clusters that are placed far away from the Milky Way.
Orion Nebula, lying 1,350 light years away from earth has been well-observed in the survey and it recorded that the whole Orion A molecular cloud as covering some 18 square degrees.
Orion Nebula stays marked out as the most studied star-forming area as the galaxy closest to earth where stars are formed regularly.
VISTA Advantage
For astronomers, the biggest obstacle to the study of star formation so far had been their submergence in dust and molecular gas during the formative phase.
This made studies of stellar evolution hard and cumbersome as star formation was beyond access when it comes to optical imaging.
However, VISTA telescope with its near-infrared technology has broken that barrier and helped astronomers in scanning through the mysterious veil of star-formation at the core of Orion.
The fact that VISTA can see the light that the human eye misses, has helped astronomers to identify many hidden objects at the stellar nursery.
During the survey, very young stars, which were hitherto unseen in visible-light images, were revealed as longer infrared wavelengths peered the dust and made them transparent.
