El Centro Galáctico desde Atacama

Taken with the HAWK-I instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in the Chilean Atacama Desert, this stunning image shows the Milky Way’s central region with an angular resolution of 0.2 arcseconds. This means the level of detail picked up by HAWK-I is roughly equivalent to seeing a football (soccer ball) in Zurich from Munich, where ESO’s headquarters are located. The image combines observations in three different wavelength bands. The team used the broadband filters J (centred at 1250 nanometres, in blue), H (centred at 1635 nanometres, in green), and Ks (centred at 2150 nanometres, in red), to cover the near infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. By observing in this range of wavelengths, HAWK-I can peer through the dust, allowing it to see certain stars in the central region of our galaxy that would otherwise be hidden.   

Perspectiva de HAWK-I sobre la región central de la Vía Láctea


Tomada con el instrumento HAWK-I en el Very Large Telescope de ESO situado en el desierto chileno de Atacama, esta impresionante imagen muestra la región central de la Vía Láctea con una resolución angular de 0,2 arcosegundos.

Esto significa que el nivel de detalle captado por HAWK-I es aproximadamente equivalente a ver un balón de fútbol en Zurich desde Munich, donde se encuentra la sede central de ESO.