Solar & Extrasolar Systems

Image sequence (animated gif movie) showing rotation of Jupiter. 

Pluto and its moon Charon are shown in this sequence of four infrared images obtained on different nights during June 1999 at Gemini, utilizing the University of Hawaii's infrared camera QUIRC and adaptive optics (AO) system, Hokupa'a. The AO system uses a flexible mirror to compensate for distortions caused by the earth's atmosphere and allows images which are as sharp as possible to be recordedat this wavelength. Pluto, the most distant planet in our solar system, was discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.

The middle image shows a specially processed (unsharp-mask) version of the T-ReCS data that accentuates finer details. The right image is a composite of visible data from the Mars Global Surveyor (National Geographic Society, MOLA Science Team, MSSS, JPL, NASA) taken from the Mars Now webpage and shows Mars at approximately the same orientation during the time of the T-ReCS observations. Comparison of the infrared and visible images shows that many details, such as the southern polar cap and Olympus Mons (upper center large volcano), can also be seen in the T-ReCS processed image.

Two of Jupiter's Galilean moons are visible in this image as well: Europa is the bright "star" to the right of Jupiter, and Io is the bright spot projected against the equatorial cloud bands towards the right edge of the disk. They can be seen to move in their orbits in the animation. Note: This image is part of an image sequence that demonstrates Jupiter's rotation. This movie can be found here. 

This near-infrared (H-Band) image of the disk around the binary star pair GG Tauri A-B was obtained by the University of Hawaii's adaptive optics system called Hokupa'a, mounted on the Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii on the night of February 24, 2001. Hokupa'a is the Hawaiian word for the North Star and literally means "steady star." GG Tauri is a quadruple system (and possibly a quintuple system, with the fifth component being a possible brown dwarf).