International Team of Astronomers Led by Unab Academic Reveals Infrared Map of the Milky Way Galaxy

An international team of astronomers, led by Dr. Dante Minniti, an academic at the Astrophysics Institute of the Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB) and researcher at the Center for Astrophysics and Related Technologies (CATA), together with Phil Lucas, an academic at the University of Hertfordshire (UH) in the United Kingdom, has produced the most complete infrared map of the Milky Way. The project, which spanned more than 13 years using the VISTA telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), observed more than 1.5 billion objects in the central regions of our galaxy, generating about 500 terabytes of scientific data.

«There have been so many discoveries; we have forever changed the view of our galaxy,» commented Dr. Minniti, director of the megaproject. Highlights include previously unknown galactic structures, RR Lyrae stars, and gravitational microlensing phenomena. «We reveal events in the galactic center, stellar populations, and extreme objects, which opens up many new and interesting questions,» he added.

International Collaboration

The development of the Milky Way infrared map was carried out by the VISTA Variables in the Milky Way (VVV) and VVV eXtended (VVVX) surveys, led by Dante Minniti and Phil Lucas. The observations began in 2010 and ended in the first half of 2023, covering 420 working nights and capturing about 200,000 images. The magnitude of this effort resulted in more than 300 scientific publications and 30 doctoral theses in South America and Europe.

The results of this megaproject were presented in an article in the prestigious European journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The publication was led by professors Roberto Saito from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Brazil and Maren Hempel from the UNAB Astrophysics Institute.

This monumental work lists the findings made after many years of data analysis and resulted from the collaboration of 146 co-authors from 15 countries on four continents. Together with Dr. Dante Minniti, the participants were distinguished astronomers from the Instituto de Astrofísica UNAB, including Maren Hempel, Isabelle Gavignaud, Joyce Pullen, Nicola Masetti, Claudio Cáceres (CATA), Bruno Dias (CATA) and Matías Gómez.

The fact that a program of this magnitude and quality, directed by an academic from our Institute of Astrophysics, which also includes academics and students of all levels, to achieve a scientific impact in several areas of astrophysics finally is undoubtedly a sign of the quality of the research we carry out,» said Matías Gómez, director of the UNAB Astrophysics Institute. The fact that a program of this magnitude and quality, directed by an academic from our Institute of Astrophysics, which also includes academics and students from all levels, to achieve a scientific impact in several areas of astrophysics is undoubtedly a sign of the quality of the research we carry out,» said Matías Gómez, Director of the Institute of Astrophysics UNAB.

The impact that this megaproject will have on the training of future astronomers is still challenging to quantify, says Gómez, but it is proving to be important:

The data obtained have enabled many scientific collaborations and have been essential for numerous PhD and undergraduate theses. This is evidence of how top-level research impacts the training of our students, and especially their motivation when they are the ones who have made so many discoveries.

A Legacy for World Astronomy