Wide-field view of the Milky Way, showing the extent of a new VISTA gigapixel image

This very wide-field view of the Milky Way shows the extent of the new VISTA infrared image of the centre of the galaxy. These data cover the region known as the bulge of the galaxy and have been used to study a much larger number of individual stars in the central parts of the Milky Way than ever before. The region covered by the new VISTA mosaic is shown as a rectangle.