Gemini South GeMS/GSAOI near-infrared image of the N159W field in the Large Magellanic Cloud.  Color composite image by Travis Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage.

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This Gemini North telescope image reveals no less than six gas jets emerging at supersonic speeds from the reddish Herbig-Haro 24 (HH 24) complex — a small cluster of young stars embedded in a molecular cloud some 1,300 light years distant in the direction of the constellation Orion. It is the most detailed image ever obtained from the ground of this remarkable region, which contains the highest concentration of gas jets known. Many of the jets show clear evidence of wiggling, suggesting that in each case the source may be a close binary whose orbit perturbs the jet. 

Millones de años atrás, una nube oscura de polvo a 5.500 años luz del Sol se compactó para comenzar el proceso del nacimiento de una estrella. Hoy, alrededor de 190 millones de años después, la región está ardiendo con jóvenes estrellas masivas y calientes ubicadas ordenadamente en un cúmulo en forma de semillas de diente de león, el cual ahora denominamos como NGC 6520.

Millions of years ago, a dark cloud of dust about 5,500 light years from the Sun coalesced to begin the process of star birth. Today, some 190 million years later, the region is ablaze with hot, massive young stars arrayed in a dandelion-seed-shaped cluster, which we now call NGC 6520. Not far away lies (with a little imagination) the gecko-shaped dark remains of what may be the cluster’s birth cloud, Barnard 86 (B 86). 

This montage is a tribute to a unique instrument at Gemini South known as the Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS). When coupled to the Gemini South Adpative Optics Imager (GSAOI), GeMS can make Gemini’s 8-meter mirror significantly more efficient by focusing light more precisely — allowing astronomers using Gemini to probe objects more deeply and study them in finer detail. 

"Balas" cósmicas azules se disparan hacia las afueras de la Nebulosa de Orión (agrandada en la parte superior izquierda) en esta imagen altamente detallada captada con el telescopio de Gemini Sur en Chile. Descubierta en 1983, las Balas de Orion son masas de gas eyectadas desde las profundidades de la Nebulosa de Orión aproximadamente a 1.500 años-luz de distancia de nosotros.

This Gemini North telescope image reveals no less than six gas jets emerging at supersonic speeds from the reddish Herbig-Haro 24 (HH 24) complex — a small cluster of young stars embedded in a molecular cloud some 1,300 light years distant in the constellation Orion. It is the most detailed image ever obtained from the ground of this remarkable region, which contains the highest concentration of jets known anywhere. One jet is highly disturbed, suggesting that the source may be a close binary whose orbit perturbs the jet body.

This FLAMINGOS-2 near-infrared image details part of the magnificent Swan Nebula (M17), where ultraviolet radiation streaming from young hot stars sculpts a dense region of dust and gas into myriad fanciful forms. M17 lies some 5,200 light-years distant in the constellation Sagittarius and is one of the most massive and luminous star-forming region's in our Galaxy. It is also one of the most studied.

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This image, obtained during the late commissioning phase of the GeMS adaptive optics system, with the Gemini South AO Imager (GSAOI) on the night of December 28, 2012, reveals exquisite details in the outskirts of the Orion Nebula. The large adaptive optics field-of-view (85 arcseconds across) demonstrates the system's extreme resolution and uniform correction across the entire field. The three filters used for this composite color image include [Fe II], H2, and, K(short)-continuum (2.093 microns) for blue, orange, and white layers respectively.