"These images allow us to identify even the dimmest light sources, such as stars much smaller than the Sun, exposing objects previously unseen," states Stefan Meingast, an astronomer at the University of Vienna in Austria and the lead author of the study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. "This will enable us to comprehend the mechanisms that convert gas and dust into stars."
The process of star formation involves the collapse of gas and dust clouds under their gravitational pull. However, the specifics of this phenomenon remain elusive. Stellar formation raises several questions, such as the number of stars birthed from a cloud, their size, and the presence of accompanying planets.
Meingast's team examined five nearby star-forming regions using the VISTA telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. Using VISTA's infrared camera, VIRCAM, researchers captured light emanating from within the dust clouds. Alena Rottensteiner, a PhD student at the University of Vienna and co-author of the study, explains that dust conceals these nascent stars, rendering them virtually invisible. Infrared wavelengths enable researchers to delve into these clouds and study the developing stars.
The VISIONS survey observed star-forming regions in the Orion, Ophiuchus, Chamaeleon, Corona Australis, and Lupus constellations. These regions, located less than 1500 light-years away, span a vast area of the sky. VIRCAM's field of view, as wide as three full Moons, is uniquely equipped to map these immense regions.
Over five years, the team collected more than one million images, which were combined to form expansive cosmic landscapes. These detailed panoramas feature dust clouds, glowing gas, newborn stars, and the remote background stars of the Milky Way.
The repeated observation of these areas enables the VISIONS data to study the movement of young stars. João Alves, an astronomer at the University of Vienna and Principal Investigator of VISIONS, explains that monitoring these infant stars over several years allows researchers to measure their motion and understand how they depart from their parent clouds. These calculations of stellar motion supplement those gathered by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission at visible wavelengths, where young stars are obscured by dense layers of dust.
The VISIONS atlas will occupy astronomers for years to come, providing long-lasting value to the astronomical community. Furthermore, VISIONS will lay the foundation for future observations with telescopes like ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in Chile and set to begin operations later this decade. "The ELT will enable us to focus on specific regions with unparalleled detail, offering us an unprecedented close-up view of individual stars currently forming there," Meingast concludes.
1. An infrared view of the L1688 region in Ophiuchus / credit. ESO
2. An infrared view of the Lupus 2 region / ESO
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