NoIRLab
The image, captured from Chile by the international Gemini Observatory, looks as delicate as a butterfly's wing. The Chamaeleon I dark cloud is one of the nearest star-forming regions in the universe. NOIRLab's Communication, Education and Engagement team is credit.
The image, taken with the South telescope, looks like it is ready to leave the screen. The object is called the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula because it is bright at some wavelengths of light, but can also be seen in visible light. The engine of the reflection nebula is hidden at the center of the image and is overshadowed by a dark vertical band. Even though it is hidden from view, the young star emits streams of gas that carved a tunnel through the cloud from which it formed. The reflection nebula can be seen because the star's light escapes along this tunnel and scatters off its walls.
There is a bright red object to the right of the image center that marks where some of the fast- moving gas lights up after colliding with slower moving gas in the nebula. The object is known as a Herbig-Haro and has a designation. The Herbig-Haro objects can be found along the axis of the star's outflow beyond the edges of the image.
Astronomers think that the dark band at the center of the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula is a disk of gas and dust. The materials needed to build planets are provided by circummstellar disks. The disk is edge-on, revealing only one edge to observers here on Earth, which is why it appears as a band rather than a circle. The central star is thought to be a young stellar object.
The blue background is reflecting light from a nearby star.
The constellation Chamaeleon contains the ChamaeleonInfrared Nebula. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/E. Slawik.
The larger Chamaeleon I dark cloud is next to the Chamaeleon II and Chamaeleon III dark clouds. The Chamaeleon Complex is a large area of star formation that occupies almost the entire constellation Chamaeleon in the southern sky.
The southern edition of the twin Gemini Multi-Object Spectrographs (GMOS), located atop Cerro Pachn in Chile at Gemini South, is a program of the NOIRLab. The instrument is a versatile one because of its capabilities in addition to being a spectrograph.
German Gimeno, NOIRLab instrument scientist, said that theGMOS-South is the perfect instrument to make this observation because of its field of view and ability to capture the emission from the ionized gas.
The one-winged butterfly was caught by the Gemini South telescope on December 7, 2021.
The document is copyrighted. Any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research cannot be reproduced without written permission. The content is not intended to be used for anything other than information purposes.
