University of Hertfordshire probes the Universe (From Borehamwood Times)

University of Hertfordshire probes the Universe

10:30am Friday 11th December 2009

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SPECTACULAR images from the depths of outer space, taken by a cutting edge telescope developed by astronomers at Hatfield's University of Hertfordshire, have just been published.

Known as VISTA (the Visible and Infra-red Survey Telescope for Astronomy), and located at Chile's Paranal Observatory, the instrument can scan the sky much faster and deeper than any other infra-red telescope. 

As it is sensitive to infra-red light it can penretrate through clouds of insterstellar dust to see detail obscure to conventional telescopes.

The new photographs show the Flame Nebula (a cloud of gas and dust in the constelltion of Orion), the centre of our Milky Way galaxy and the Fornax Galaxy Cluster.

Matt Jarvis, one of three University of Hertfordshire astronomers on the project, said: "VISTA will allow us to explore the Universe from the Dark Ages, when the first stars and black holes formed, all the way through to the present day.

“With its combination of sensitivity and large field-of-view we will be able to answer some of the most fundamental questions in galaxy formation and evolution, the role of super-massive black holes in this process and how galaxies trace the underlying dark matter structure of the universe."

 

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