WOW! What a potentially significant capability to actually see through the cosmic dust!! This capability is with the European Southern Observatory's "dustbuster" VISTA telescope.
While this is a new article, according to the information, the first observations by the VISTA telescope were made in 2009.
Space.com
By Hanneke Weitering, Staff Writer-Producer | October 5, 2016 07:30am ET
Interstellar dust that blocks astronomers' view of space is no match for the European Southern Observatory's "dustbuster" telescope, which just revealed this dazzling view of several stars that have hidden in the cosmic dust until now.
The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), located at ESO's Cerro Paranal Observatory in Chile, took this new image of this cloud of gas and dust, called Messier 78 (M78), which resides 1,600 light-years from Earth. Astronomers call M78 a reflection nebula, because it reflects the light from nearby stars. ESO scientists created this video of the stunning nebula to showcase their research (see video in below link).
VISTA is specially designed for this sort of dust-busting work. It sees light in near-infrared wavelengths, which passes straight through the dust. Other wavelengths of light are either blocked or absorbed by interstellar gas and dust.
See more: http://www.space.com/34301-dustbuster-telescope-finds-hidden-stars.html
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