This journey begins with a spectacular view of the Milky Way, our Galaxy. Then a zoom takes us to the center of the southern constellations of Scorpio and Sagittarius. Next we approach a region of star formation called the Cat's Paw Nebula (NGC 6334). These images are taken by the terrestrial telescope VISTA which observes in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. And finally, a new vision of the region taken at sub-millimetre wavelengths with the ArTeMiS camera of the APEX telescope (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment). APEX is a 12 m diameter telescope located at an altitude of 5100 m on the Chajnantor plateau in the Atacama desert in Chile. It operates at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, that is, between infrared light and radio waves of the electromagnetic spectrum. Observations in the infrared domain allow astronomers to peer into the cold universe. In these images of the star-forming region of the Cat's Paw Nebula, we see in red-orange the light detected by ArTéMiS. This color corresponds to the emission at 0.35 mm of dense clouds of interstellar dust grains. Then superimposed, we see the same images in near infrared, seen by the VISTA telescope of Mount Paranal.
nota: ArTéMiS stands for Architectures of bolometers for telescopes with a large field of view in the sub-millimeter domain on the ground. Bolometers (from the Greek "bolè" radiation and "metron" measurement) are detectors used to measure the quantity of energy received from a source of electromagnetic radiation. |