1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:08,000 A new telescope for mapping the skies 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,000 is about to start work at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,000 The VLT Survey Telescope, or VST, 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,000 with the 268 megapixel OmegaCAM camera at its heart, 5 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,000 is the latest addition to the observatory. 6 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:30,000 It is the largest telescope in the world designed to survey the sky in visible light. 7 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,000 This is the ESOcast! 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,000 Cutting-edge science and life behind the scenes of ESO, 9 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,000 the European Southern Observatory. 10 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:49,000 Exploring the ultimate frontier with our host Dr J, a.k.a. Dr Joe Liske. 11 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,000 Hello and welcome to the ESOcast. 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,000 The new telescope is called the VLT Survey Telescope, or VST for short, 13 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:03,000 and the special thing about it is that it has a very wide field of view, 14 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,000 about twice as broad as the full Moon. 15 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:07,000 It’s dedicated to mapping the skies 16 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,000 both very quickly and with very high image quality. 17 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:16,000 The VST is housed in an enclosure right next to the VLT Unit Telescopes 18 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:18,000 on the summit of Cerro Paranal 19 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,000 under the pristine skies of one of the best observing sites on the planet. 20 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:27,000 Now, over the next few years the VST and its huge camera OmegaCAM 21 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,000 will be busy making some very detailed maps of the southern skies 22 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,000 and in this episode you’ll get to see 23 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,000 the very first released images from this brand new telescope. 24 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,000 The VST is a visible light telescope that perfectly complements 25 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,000 the VISTA infrared survey telescope. 26 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:52,000 The unique combination of the VST and VISTA 27 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,000 will allow many interesting objects to be identified 28 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:01,000 that can then be studied in detail with the powerful telescopes of the VLT. 29 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,000 The VST is a state-of-the-art 2.6-metre telescope 30 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,000 equipped with an active optics system 31 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,000 that keeps the two mirrors of the telescope perfectly aligned at all times 32 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:19,000 in order to ensure the highest possible image quality. 33 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:24,000 Now, at its core, behind huge lenses, lies the OmegaCAM camera 34 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:28,000 which was built around no less than 32 CCD detectors 35 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:33,000 which, together, provide a whopping 268 megapixel image. 36 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,000 Now, the camera also contains some extra CCDs 37 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:39,000 that help with the telescope guiding and the active optics system, 38 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:43,000 as well as some absolutely enormous colour filters. 39 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,000 Both the telescope and the camera were designed to take full advantage 40 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000 of the excellent observing conditions on Paranal. 41 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:56,000 The VST is a joint venture between INAF, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, 42 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:57,000 and ESO. 43 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,000 INAF, and in particular its Capodimonte Observatory in Naples, 44 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:03,000 designed and built the telescope, 45 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,000 while ESO was responsible for the civil engineering works at the site. 46 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,000 OmegaCAM was built and designed by a consortium of astronomers 47 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,000 working in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and at ESO. 48 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:26,000 The VST will make three public surveys over the next five years. 49 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:28,000 One survey, called KIDS, 50 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:32,000 will image several regions of the sky away from the Milky Way. 51 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:38,000 It will help astronomers understand more about dark matter, dark energy and galaxy evolution, 52 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:42,000 and find many new galaxy clusters and high-redshift quasars. 53 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,000 The VST ATLAS survey will cover a larger area of sky 54 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:51,000 and will focus on determining the properties of dark energy. 55 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:55,000 Like KIDS, it will also hunt for far-away galaxies and quasars. 56 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:59,000 The third survey, VPHAS+, 57 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,000 will image the central plane of the Milky Way to map the structure of the Galactic disc 58 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,000 and its star-formation history. 59 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,000 It will yield a catalogue of around 500 million objects 60 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:16,000 and will discover many new examples of unusual stars at all stages of their evolution. 61 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,000 The data volume produced by OmegaCAM is going to be pretty large 62 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:28,000 with about 30 Terabytes of raw data produced every year. 63 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,000 Now, these data are going to flow back into data centres in Europe for processing. 64 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,000 The huge lists of objects found in the images, 65 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,000 as well as the images themselves, will then be made public 66 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,000 so that astronomers all over the world can use the VST data 67 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:47,000 to help them figure out the answers to a vast range of different astronomical questions. 68 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,000 The VST has just made its first release of images. 69 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:01,000 The spectacular Omega Nebula, also known as Swan Nebula, 70 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:06,000 is a region of gas, dust and hot young stars that lies in the heart of the Milky Way. 71 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:11,000 The VST field of view is so large that the entire nebula, 72 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,000 including its fainter outer parts, is captured 73 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:18,000 and retains its superb sharpness across the entire field. 74 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:27,000 Omega Centauri is the largest globular cluster in the sky. 75 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:30,000 But the VST, with its very wide field of view, 76 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,000 has no problem in capturing the whole object in a single image, 77 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,000 including its very faint outer regions. 78 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:46,000 This image contains about 300 000 stars 79 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:50,000 and it highlights the impressive sharpness of the VST’s images. 80 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:58,000 The combination of large field of view, excellent image quality, 81 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,000 and the very efficient operations scheme of the VST 82 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:03,000 will produce an enormous wealth of information 83 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:07,000 that will advance a number of different fields of astrophysics. 84 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,000 Many astronomers, including myself actually 85 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,000 are really looking forward to the first results from the VST surveys. 86 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:16,000 This is Dr J signing off for the ESOcast. 87 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,000 Join me again next time for another cosmic adventure. 88 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:24,000 ESOcast is produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. 89 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,000 ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy, 90 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,000 designing, constructing and operating the world’s most advanced ground-based telescopes. 91 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:44,000 Transcription by ESO ; translation by — 92 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:59,000 Now that you've caught up with ESO, 93 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,000 head 'out of this world' with Hubble. 94 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:13,000 The Hubblecast highlights the latest discoveries of the world´s most recognized and prized space observatory, 95 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:19,000 the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope