Visible/infrared comparison of the VISTA Galactic Centre image

The right-hand image shows a small part of the VISTA infrared image of the Galactic Centre. It matches the image at the right that was taken in visible light using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. Although many of the brighter and closer stars can be seen in both images, a myriad of faint red stars appear in the VISTA infrared view that were hidden behind dust and not seen in the visible. The field of view is about twelve arcminutes across.