UltraVISTA

highlights from the YJKs composite image

YJKs false-colour composite image of the full UltraVISTA field. The large blue-white objects with haloes are foreground stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy. A plethora of other galaxies can be seen including nearby galaxies which appear large enough on our images to discern their structures to the most distant galaxies appearing as red dots in this image. Other features include a group or cluster of galaxies in the bottom left hand corner. A number of these galaxies are clearly interacting and a closer view is shown further down the page. Follow this link to see the full image.

UltraVISTA YJKs cutout image



In another region of the image, a number of nearby galaxies can be seen. Their proximity, combined with the quality of the UltraVISTA data allows us to see their structure in breathtaking detail, such as the spiral galaxy in the centre of the image and the galaxy pair to the right of centre.

In striking contrast, just below the central spiral galaxy is a concentration of very red objects which represent some of the most distant galaxies we can observe.

UltraVISTA YJKs image cutout



The region of the image shown below highlights the sensitivity of the UltraVISTA survey, which combines both depth (long exposure) and area, to large scale structures in the cosmic web. In this cutout, several concentrations of galaxies (clusters or groups) are seen at a variety of distances. A group of galaxies at intermediate distance (larger reddish-white objects in the central part of the image below) are clearly seen superimposed on a number of concentrations of very red objects - galaxies in the distant universe.

UltraVISTA YJKs composite image cutouts



A closer view of the galaxy group in the top image. A number of these galaxies appear to be distorted and/or interacting with other galaxies in the group.

UltraVISTA YJKs composite cutout



A detailed view of some smaller scale features in the image


This regions shows an interesting group of very distant (very red) objects.





These images show concentrations of objects at various distances (the redder the objects, the more distant the they are).

 



These images show some beautiful nearby galaxies including a barred spiral galaxy (left) and a non-barred spiral galaxy (right). Both of these spiral galaxies are viewed face-on allowing us to see these structures.

 


Image credits: UltraVISTA/Terapix/CNRS/CASU
Pages modified by Joanna Holt
email: jholt at strw.leidenuniv.nl
last modified: 20th March 2012