ESO DOI Service

• Iodice, Enrichetta [INAF–Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy]
• Spavone, Marilena [INAF–Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy]
• Capaccioli, Massimo [INAF–Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy]
• Schipani, Pietro [INAF–Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy]
• Arnaboldi, Magda [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]
• Cantiello, Michele [INAF–Astronomical Abruzzo Observatory, Teramo, Italy]
• D’Ago, Giuseppe [Institute of Astrophysics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile]
• De Cicco, Demetra [Institute of Astrophysics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile]
• Forbes, Duncan A. [Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia]
• Greggio, Laura [INAF−Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Padova, Italy]
• Krajnović, Davor [Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, Germany]
• La Marca, Antonio [INAF–Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy; University of Naples, Italy]
• Napolitano, Nicola R. [School of Physics and Astronomy, Sun Yat-sen University Zhuhai Campus, Guangdong, China]
• Paolillo, Maurizio [University of Naples, Italy]
• Ragusa, Rossella [INAF–Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy; University of Naples, Italy]
• Raj, Maria Angela [INAF−Astronomical Observatory of Rome, Italy]
• Rampazzo, Roberto [INAF–Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Asiago, Italy]
• Rejkuba, Marina [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]

The VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey (VEGAS) is a deep, multi-band (u, g, r, I) imaging survey, carried out with the 2.6-metre VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. VEGAS combines the wide (1-square- degree) field of view of the VST’s OmegaCAM imager and long integration times, together with a specially designed observing strategy. It has proven to be a gold mine for studies of features at very low surface brightness, down to levels of μ_g ~ 27–30 magnitudes arcsec^–2, over 5–8 magnitudes fainter than the dark sky at Paranal. In this article we highlight the main science results obtained with VEGAS observations of galaxies across different environments, from dense clusters of galaxies to unexplored poor groups and in the field.