October 16, 2016

The central part of the Milky Way (Image ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti)

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” describes the discovery of the relics of an ancient globular cluster in the Milky Way’s central area. A team of astronomers led by Dante Minniti (Universidad AndrĂ©s Bello, Santiago, Chile) and Rodrigo Contreras Ramos (Instituto Milenio de AstrofĂ­sica, Santiago, Chile) used observations from the “Variables in the Via Lactea with VISTA” (VVV) survey carried out with ESO’s VISTA telescope to discover the ancient stars of type RR Lyrae for the first time in that area.