Gemini Observatory Twin Telescopes Capture the Ethereal Image of a Butterfly's Wing

On Wednesday, December 7, National Science Foundation's NOIRLab released a photo of a gas outflow captured by the International Gemini Observatory. The ethereal image is of the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula located near the center of the Chamaeleon I dark cloud, which is one of the nearest star-forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy.

NSF's NOIRLab was formerly named the National Optical Infrared Astronomy Research Astronomy that unifies all nighttime optical/infrared observations that the NSF funds. This includes the Mid-scale Observatories (MSO), Community Science & Data Center (CSDC), the Gemini Observatory, and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory that empowers discovery, technology development, and the growth of the STEM workforce.

Gemini Observatory Twin Telescopes Capture the Ethereal Image of a Butterfly's Wing

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
This striking new image, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, reveals a star in the process of forming within the Chamaeleon cloud. This young star is throwing off narrow streams of gas from its poles — creating this ethereal object known as HH 909A. These speedy outflows collide with the slower surrounding gas, lighting up the region.

Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula

Phys.org reported that the Gemini South telescope captured the breathtaking visible-light image of the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula. Its name is derived from its bright characteristics caused by infrared wavelengths of light that can also be seen in visible light, such as the image NOIRLab shared.

The nebula's engine, a less massive star than the Sun that releases streams of fast-moving gas that carved a tunnel through the cloud, is hidden at its core by a dark vertical band. The infrared and visible light that escaped from the tunnel of the nebula scatters off its walls, which resulted in the wispy reflection of the nebula captured by the telescopes.

The news outlet noted that at the right corner of the image marks where some of the fast-moving streams of gas that light up after a collision with a slower-moving gas inside the nebula. This bright red object has a designation of HH909A, also known as the Herbig-Haro (HH) object. Scientists also noted that other objects are found in the axis of the gas outflow beyond the images captured.

Astronomers suggest that Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula's dark center is a circumstellar disk that serves as a reservoir of gas and dust that orbits the star. Typically, these disks are associated with young stars that provide them the ingredients for building planets. Likewise, researchers believe that the nebula's central star is a young star embedded within the disk.

The image shows that the disk appears as a band rather than a circle because it is edge-on that reveals only one edge to the observers here on Earth.

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Gemini Observatory Twin Telescopes

According to the Gemini Observatory website, the Gemini Observatory provides state-of-the-art astronomical facilities to the astronomical communities in six participant countries.

Each of them has contributed financially and significant scientific and technical resources that help scientists do their work. Gemini Observatory partnered with the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Canadian National Research Council (NCR), the Chilean Comisión Nacional de Investigación Cientifica y Tecnológica (ANID), the Brazilian Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, the Argentinean Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación, and the Korea Astronomy and Space Institute (KASI).

Currently, it is managed by the NSF, which serves as the executive agency for international partnership, and the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.