Title: UltraVISTA: a new ultra-deep near-infrared survey in COSMOS Authors: H. J. McCracken, B. Milvang-Jensen, J. Dunlop, M. Franx, J. P. U. Fynbo, O. Le Fèvre, J. Holt, K. I. Caputi, Y. Goranova, F. Buitrago, J. Emerson, W. Freudling, P. Hudelot, C. López-Sanjuan, F. Magnard, Y. Mellier, P. Møller, K. K. Nilsson, W. Sutherland, L. Tasca, J. Zabl
In this paper we describe the first data release of the UltraVISTA near-infrared imaging survey of the COSMOS field. We summarise the key goals and design of the survey and provide a detailed description of our data reduction techniques. We provide stacked, sky-subtracted images in YJHK_s and narrow-band filters constructed from data collected during the first year of UltraVISTA observations. Our stacked images reach 5\sigma AB depths in an aperture of 2" diameter of ~ 25 in Y and ~ 24 in JHK_s bands and all have sub-arcsecond seeing. To this 5\sigma limit, our K_s catalogue contains 216,268 sources. We carry out a series of quality assessment tests on our images and catalogues, comparing our stacks with existing catalogues. The 1\sigma astrometric RMS in both directions for stars selected with 17.0<K_s {(AB)} <19.5 is ~ 0.08" in comparison to the publicly-available COSMOS ACS catalogues. Our images are resampled to the same pixel scale and tangent point as the publicly available COSMOS data and so may be easily used to generate multi-colour catalogues using this data. All images and catalogues presented in this paper are publicly available through ESO's "phase 3" archiving and distribution system and from the UltraVISTA web site.
ESO's VISTA telescope has created the widest deep view of the sky ever made using infrared light. This new picture of an unremarkable patch of sky comes from the UltraVISTA survey and reveals more than 200 000 galaxies. It forms just one part of a huge collection of fully processed images from all the VISTA surveys that is now being made available by ESO to astronomers worldwide. UltraVISTA is a treasure trove that is being used to study distant galaxies in the early Universe as well as for many other science projects. ESO's VISTA telescope has been trained on the same patch of sky repeatedly to slowly accumulate the very dim light of the most distant galaxies. In total more than six thousand separate exposures with a total effective exposure time of 55 hours, taken through five different coloured filters, have been combined to create this picture. This image from the UltraVISTA survey is the deepest infrared view of the sky of its size ever taken.
Using data from the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory, an international team of astronomers has discovered 96 new open star clusters hidden by the dust in the Milky Way. These tiny and faint objects were invisible to previous surveys, but they could not escape the sensitive infrared detectors of the world's largest survey telescope, which can peer through the dust. This is the first time so many faint and small clusters have been found at once. This result comes just one year after the start of the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea programme (VVV), one of the six public surveys on the new telescope. The results will appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Scotland is producing scientific research that is leading the world in medicine, engineering and space exploration, a report by the Scottish Government's chief scientific adviser has said. Among the work highlighted at the launch of Prof Glover's report were the remarkable images of stars being born 1,650 light years away in the middle of the constellation of Orion. Read more
A new UK-designed telescope that can map the sky much faster and deeper than any other infrared telescope has made its first release of stunning images. VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) is the world's largest telescope dedicated to mapping the sky in infrared light and will reveal a completely new view of the southern sky. It was conceived and developed by a consortium of 18 UK universities led by Queen Mary University of London and including the University of Southampton, and is based at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Paranal Observatory. Read more
A new telescope designed by British scientists has released its first images, revealing spectacular views of both the Milky Way and distant galaxies. The stunning pictures of the Flame Nebula, the centre of the Milky Way and the FornaxGalaxy Cluster show that Vista - the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy - is working well. Read more
Spectacular images from the depths of outer space, taken by a cutting edge telescope developed by astronomers at Hatfield's University of Hertfordshire, have just been published. Known as VISTA (the Visible and Infra-red Survey Telescope for Astronomy), and located at Chile's Paranal Observatory, the instrument can scan the sky much faster and deeper than any other infra-red telescope. Read more