The Cosmic Road from Cerro Tololo

The ‘way’ to the Universe begins at Cerro Tololo. In this incredible image, the Milky Way, which appears as a glowing cosmic road ascending to the heavens, seems to start at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. And indeed, the road towards understanding some cosmic phenomena does start at CTIO! 

Earlier this year, the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope (left) made the first confirmed detection of an extremely rare pair of stars that will someday become a kilonova. One of the most energetic events in the Universe, kilonovae are the explosions that result when two neutron stars merge. These astronomical events are so powerful that they can create heavy elements like gold and silver! So finding a progenitor system like this can shed more light on where heavy elements come from.

The SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope (right) helped answer the question: “How small can a star go?” In 2013, astronomers used this telescope and the SOAR Telescope to identify the coolest, smallest, and dimmest that a star could be. 

This photo was taken as part of the NOIRLab 2022 Photo Expedition to all the NOIRLab sites.