A new view of NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy, has been snapped by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) new VLT Survey Telescope (VST), located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.
The wide-field image shows bright areas of star formation where hot young blue-white stars are glowing amid clouds of greenish hydrogen gas, around 11.5 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Sculptor.
Also known as the Silver Dollar or Coin Galaxy, NGC 253 is a “starburst” galaxy with extensive star formation underway. It is actually visible using binoculars because it is the Milky Way’s second closest neighbor, after the Andromeda Galaxy.
NGC 253 was originally discovered by the sister of astronomer William Herschel, Caroline, who was searching for comets back in 1783.
As the VST prepares to become operational, astronomers are testing out its capabilities. Its 2.6-meter-wide view can take in twice the diameter of the full moon, and will map our skies in visible light, both rapidly and in detail, alongside ESO’s VISTA infrared survey telescope.
In this composite image, information from the VST has been combined with infrared data from VISTA, showing the Sculptor Galaxy in rich detail, as well as many distant galaxies beyond.
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