{"id":12238,"date":"2016-02-24T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12238"},"modified":"2016-02-22T22:44:11","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T03:44:11","slug":"eso-large-area-survey-of-the-milky-way-completed-by-apex-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12238","title":{"rendered":"ESO: Large area survey of the Milky Way completed by APEX Telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report from\u00a0ESO<\/a>\u00a0(European Southern Observatory):<\/p>\n

ATLASGAL Survey of Milky Way Completed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A spectacular new image of the Milky Way has been released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). The APEX telescope in Chile has mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere for the first time at submillimetre wavelengths \u2014 between infrared light and radio waves \u2014 and in finer detail than recent space-based surveys. The pioneering 12-metre APEX telescope allows astronomers to study the cold Universe: gas and dust only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This image of the Milky Way has been released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). The APEX telescope in Chile has mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere for the first time at submillimetre wavelengths \u2014 between infrared light and radio waves \u2014 and in finer detail than recent space-based surveys. The APEX data, at a wavelength of 0.87 millimetres, shows up in red and the background blue image was imaged at shorter infrared wavelengths by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the GLIMPSE survey.\u00a0The fainter extended red structures come from complementary observations made by ESA’s\u00a0Planck satellite. Many of the most prominent objects are named and the parts of the galaxy that are shown in the three slices are indicated at the right.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

APEX<\/a>, the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment telescope, is located at 5100 metres above sea level on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile\u2019s Atacama region. The ATLASGAL<\/a> survey took advantage of the unique characteristics of the telescope to provide a detailed view of the distribution of cold dense gas along the plane of the Milky Way galaxy [1]<\/a>. The new image includes most of the regions of star formation<\/a> in the southern Milky Way [2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new ATLASGAL maps cover an area of sky 140 degrees long and 3 degrees wide, more than four times larger than the first ATLASGAL release<\/a> [3]<\/a>. The new maps are also of higher quality, as some areas were re-observed to obtain a more uniform data quality over the whole survey area.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
This comparison shows the central regions of the Milky Way observed at different wavelengths. The top panel<\/strong> shows compact sources of submillimetre radiation detected by APEX as part of the ATLASGAL survey, combined with complementary data from ESA\u2019s Planck satellite, to capture more extended features. The second panel<\/strong> shows the same region as seen in shorter, infrared, wavelengths by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. The third panel<\/strong> shows the same part of sky again at even shorter wavelengths, the near-infrared, as seen by ESO\u2019s VISTA infrared survey telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. Regions appearing as dark dust tendrils here show up brightly in the ATLASGAL view. Finally the bottom picture<\/strong> shows the more familiar view in visible light, where most of the more distant structures are hidden from view. The significance of the colours varies from image to image and they cannot be directly compared.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ATLASGAL survey is the single most successful APEX large programme with nearly 70 associated science papers already published, and its legacy will expand much further with all the reduced data products now available to the full astronomical community [4]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the heart of APEX are its sensitive instruments. One of these, LABOCA<\/a> (the LArge BOlometer Camera) was used for the ATLASGAL survey. LABOCA \u00a0measures incoming radiation by registering the tiny rise in temperature it causes on its detectors and can detect emission from the cold dark dust bands obscuring the stellar light.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/cdn.eso.org\/videos\/medium_podcast\/eso1606a.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

This video takes a close look at a new image of the Milky Way released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). The APEX telescope in Chile has mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere for the first time at submillimetre wavelengths \u2014 between infrared light and radio waves \u2014 and in finer detail than recent space-based surveys.<\/em><\/p>\n

The APEX data, at a wavelength of 0.87 millimetres, shows up in red and the background blue image was imaged at shorter infrared wavelengths by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope<\/a> as part of the GLIMPSE survey<\/a>.\u00a0The fainter extended red structures come from complementary observations made by ESA’s\u00a0Planck<\/a> satellite.<\/em><\/p>\n

Credit:\u00a0<\/strong>ESO\/APEX\/ATLASGAL consortium\/NASA\/GLIMPSE consortium\/ESA\/Planck. Music:\u00a0Johan B. Monell (www.johanmonell.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

The new release of ATLASGAL complements observations from ESA’s\u00a0Planck<\/a> satellite [5]<\/a>. The combination of the Planck and APEX data allowed astronomers to detect emission spread over a larger area of sky and to estimate from it the fraction of dense gas in the inner Galaxy. The ATLASGAL data were also used to create a complete census of cold and massive clouds where new generations of stars are forming.<\/p>\n

\u201cATLASGAL provides exciting insights into where the next generation of high-mass stars and clusters form. By combining these with observations from Planck, we can now obtain a link to the large-scale structures of giant molecular clouds<\/em>,\u201d remarks Timea Csengeri from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), Bonn, Germany, who led the work of combining the APEX and Planck data.<\/p>\n

The APEX telescope recently celebrated<\/a> ten years of successful research on the cold Universe. It plays an important role not only as pathfinder, but also as a complementary facility to ALMA<\/a>, the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array, which is also located \u00a0on the Chajnantor Plateau. APEX is based on a prototype antenna constructed for the ALMA project, and it has found many targets that ALMA can study in great detail.<\/p>\n

Leonardo Testi from ESO, who is a member of the ATLASGAL team and the European Project Scientist for the ALMA project, concludes:<\/p>\n

\u201cATLASGAL has allowed us to have a new and transformational look at the dense interstellar medium of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The new release of the full survey opens up the possibility to mine this marvellous dataset for new discoveries. Many teams of scientists are already using the ATLASGAL data to plan for detailed ALMA follow-up.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/cdn.eso.org\/videos\/medium_podcast\/eso1606b.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

This video comparison shows the central regions of the Milky Way observed in four different wavelength ranges.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first\u00a0view shows compact sources of submillimetre radiation detected by APEX as part of the ATLASGAL survey, combined with complementary data from ESA\u2019s Planck satellite, to capture more extended features.<\/em><\/p>\n

The second view shows the same region as seen in shorter, infrared, wavelengths by NASA\u2019s Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the GLIMPSE survey.<\/em><\/p>\n

The third view shows the same part of sky again at even shorter wavelengths, the near-infrared, as seen by ESO\u2019s VISTA infrared survey telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. Regions appearing as dark dust tendrils here show up brightly in the ATLASGAL view.<\/em><\/p>\n

Finally the more familiar view in visible light, when most of the more distant structures are hidden from view, is also included.<\/em><\/p>\n

The significance of the colours varies from image to image and they cannot be directly compared.<\/em><\/p>\n

Credit:\u00a0ESO\/APEX\/ATLASGAL consortium\/NASA\/GLIMPSE consortium\/ESA\/Planck\/VVV Survey\/D. Minniti\/S. Guisard.\u00a0Acknowledgement: Ignacio Toledo, Martin Kornmesser. Music:\u00a0Johan B. Monell (www.johanmonell.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>[1] The map was constructed from individual APEX observations of radiation with a wavelength of 870 \u00b5m (0.87 millimetres).<\/p>\n

<\/a>[2] The northern part of the Milky Way had already been mapped by the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT<\/a>) and other telescopes, but the southern sky is particularly important as it includes the Galactic Centre, and because it is accessible for detailed follow-up observations with ALMA.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[3] The first data release covered an area of approximately 95 square degrees, a very long and narrow strip along the Galactic Plane two degrees wide and over 40 degrees long. The final maps now cover 420 square degrees, more than four times larger.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[4] The data products<\/a> are available through the ESO archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[5] The\u00a0Planck data cover the full sky, but with poor spatial resolution. ATLASGAL covers only the Galactic plane, but with high angular resolution. Combining both provides excellent spatial dynamic range.<\/p>\n

More information<\/strong><\/p>\n

ATLASGAL is a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), ESO, and the University of Chile.<\/p>\n

APEX is a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), the Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) and ESO. Operation of APEX at Chajnantor is carried out by ESO.<\/p>\n

ALMA is a partnership of the ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).<\/p>\n

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world\u2019s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world\u2019s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world\u2019s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become \u201cthe world\u2019s biggest eye on the sky\u201d.<\/p>\n

Links<\/strong><\/p>\n