First results from the KiDS Survey (visible light)
The first results have been released from a major new dark matter survey of the southern skies using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.
The project, known as the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), uses imaging from the VST and its huge camera, OmegaCAM to analyse images of over two million galaxies. The KiDS team studied the distortion of light emitted from these galaxies, which bends as it passes massive clumps of dark matter during its journey to Earth. From the gravitational lensing effect, these groups turn out to contain around 30 times more dark than visible matter.
Here seen is a group of galaxies mapped by KiDS.
Credit:Kilo-Degree Survey Collaboration/A. Tudorica & C. Heymans/ESO
About the Image
Id: | eso1528b |
Type: | Observation |
Release date: | 9 July 2015, 16:00 |
Related releases: | eso1528 |
Size: | 3818 x 3560 px |
About the Object
Type: | Early Universe : Cosmology : Phenomenon : Dark Matter |
Constellation: | Virgo |
Category: | Cosmology |
Coordinates
Position (RA): | 11 56 10.25 |
Position (Dec): | 0° 20' 49.11" |
Field of view: | 12.73 x 11.87 arcminutes |
Orientation: | North is 180.0° left of vertical |
Colours & filters
Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
---|---|---|
Optical u | 350 nm | VLT Survey Telescope OmegaCAM |
Optical g | 480 nm | VLT Survey Telescope OmegaCAM |
Optical r | 625 nm | VLT Survey Telescope OmegaCAM |
Optical i | 770 nm | VLT Survey Telescope OmegaCAM |