Flying over the Magellanic Clouds

The Magellanic Clouds are two dwarf galaxies that orbit our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Using ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) astronomers have taken very deep infrared images of the cores of these galaxies that will allow us to better understand their 3D shapes and motion. By repeating these observations over several years they could measure the subtle motion of stars in the cores. Moreover, they also monitored periodic changes in the brightness of certain stars, which can be used to measure distances and therefore reconstruct the 3D structure of the cores of these galaxies.

Credit:
ESO

Animations & footage: ESO/M. R. Cioni et al., VMC Survey, P. Horálek, Zdeněk Bardon, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)
Music: Mylonite – Composition 129
Script: J. C. Muñoz
Editing: M. Martins
#universe, #perfect universe, #galaxy #Mysteries