An infrared view of the Messier 22 globular cluster

This is an infrared view of the Messier 22 globular cluster, a densely packed group of very old stars located about 10 000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. The image was taken with ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ― and its infrared camera VIRCAM. It is part of a record-breaking infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects. The data were gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX).