Astronomers with the European Southern Observatory have just revealed the first images from their new telescope called VISTA: the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. If ever there was an appropriate name for a 'scope, that's it. Why? Here's why:
Oh baby. Yeah, click it to embiggen. This image is of the Flame Nebula, a star forming gas cloud in Orion. The image itself covers about half a square degree on the sky (twice the area of the full Moon) and shows details of the nebula, including the core made up of stars invisible to optical telescopes. The bright star in the image is the monster blue supergiant Alnitak, which is the easternmost (left, to northern observers) star in Orion's belt. Get a good look at it, because in a million years or so that star is gonna blow. Can you spot the famous Horsehead Nebula in this picture? ...
