UltraVISTA

Ultra Deep Survey with the VISTA telescope


VISTA telescope enclosure
Image courtesy of ESO
UltraVISTA is an Ultra Deep, near-infrared survey with the new VISTA surveys telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Over the course of 10 years, UltraVISTA repeatedly imaged the COSMOS field in 5 bands resulting in three key surveys:

  • an ultra-deep broad-band (Y, J, H, Ks) survey (1408hr) covering 0.73 deg²
  • a deep broad-band (Y, J, H, Ks) survey (212hr) covering the full 1.5deg² field
  • a narrow-band (180hr) survey covering the same region as the ultra-deep broad-band survey.


  • NEW  Fifth data release (READY ! May 2023 ).
     Fourth data release (March 2019).
     Third data release (April 2016).
     Second data release (Jan 2014).
     First data release (Feb 2012).

    Click to see the colour composite of the full field and some image highlights.

    Survey paper on arXiv and as published

    Pages modified by Marijn Franx
    email: franx at strw.leidenuniv.nl
    last modified: May 2023