VISTA Spots Pulsating Stars on the Far Side of the Trifid Nebula in New Image

The VISTA telescope is taking some spectacular images of the central regions of our Milky Way as it maps the galaxy. Known as the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey, this effort should give astronomers a new glimpse of our galaxy as a whole.

Just a tiny fraction of the huge VVV dataset has been used to create a striking new image of the famed star formation region, Messier 20. Also known as the Trifid Nebula, this region is shown in infrared in this latest image. Thick dust clouds in the disc of our galaxy absorb visible light and block details of the Trifid Nebula from view. Yet with the new efforts of VISTA, astronomers can detect objects on the other side of the galaxy that have never been seen before.

In this latest image, you can see a pair of variable stars. These are Cepheid variables, which are a type of bright star that is unstable and slowly brightens and then fades with time. This pair of stars, which may just be the brightest members of a cluster of stars, are the only Cepheid variables detected so far that are close to the central plane, but on the far side of the galaxy.

The findings reveal a bit more about this nebula and show unprecedented details in the region. It also shows that VISTA has capabilities that will reveal more information about our galaxy as the astronomers examine the data that it has collected.

The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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