Raw image from the FLAMES instrument on the VLT

A raw image from the FLAMES instrument on the VLT: each of the “pixels” of the ARGUS Integral Field Spectroscopy system is fitted with an optical fibre that brings the light into the GIRAFFE spectrograph, which in turns disperses its individual colours to form a spectrum. On this image, each spectrum appears as an individual vertical line. As the position of each fibre in the original image is known, data analysis software can re-assign each spectra to its original pixel, forming a kind of image where each pixel has the full details of the spectrum.