Vol. 673
14. Catalogs and data systems

VISIONS: The VISTA Star Formation Atlas. Papers I and II

VISIONS is a large ESO public survey of nearby (d < 500 pc), star-forming molecular cloud complexes in the constellations of Chamaeleon, Corona Australis, Lupus, Ophiuchus, and Orion. This is another large impact southern survey carried out with VISTA/VIRCAM in the near-infrared. It consists of a shallow wide sub-survey comprising six epochs, plus a set of dedicated deep observations of the areas with the largest amounts of dust extinction, and a control sub-survey with observations of low dust extinction regions. VISIONS measures proper motions with a precision of <1 mas/yr, which is important to securely identify embedded and low-mass objects in these dusty regions that are beyond Gaia’s reach. VISIONS is a treasure trove to improve our understanding of the process of star formation. This survey would enable different studies of the formation and evolution of embedded clusters, the kinematics of embedded objects down to substellar masses, the characterization of YSOs, the initial mass function, the 3D dust maps to characterize the dynamics of the local interstellar medium, as well as the dust properties and the Galactic reddening law.