Astronomers capture an image of the nebula located at the center of the Chameleon I dark cloud, one of the star-forming regions closest to the Milky Way.
This image taken on June 13-30, 2000 from the Atlas satellite, shows the bright infrared nebula "Chamaeleon" (also known by its catalog number (IRAS 11072-7727).
This is a symmetric bipolar nebula located in the CHA I cloud 619 light years from Earth.
The nebula outlines two holes dug into the stream of material leaving the nebula.
The bright light source in the center contains a tilted disk surrounded by a young double star system.
The Atlas photograph is part of the 2 micron sky photography project, a project of the University of Massachusetts, and the California Institute of Technology.
And it is funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Astronomers using the Gemini Multi-Element Spectrograph (GMOS) instrument on the Gemini South telescope have captured an infrared image of the Chameleon Nebula, which lies near the center of the Chameleon I dark cloud, one of the closest star-forming regions to the Milky Way.
The nebula, so named for its brightness at certain infrared wavelengths, is also known as Cha IRN, GN 11.07.3, and IRAS 11072-7727, and is located 457 light-years away in the Chameleon constellation.
The astronomers explained: "At the heart of the reflection nebula and in the center of the image is the nebula's engine – a small star, less massive than our Sun, which is hidden by a vertical dark band."
"Although hidden from view, the young, cool star is producing jets of fast-moving gas, which have carved a tunnel into the interstellar cloud from which the star was born."
"The infrared and visible light produced by the star escapes along the tunnel and scatters on its walls, creating the thin reflection nebula."
The bright red object to the right of center in the image is identified as a Herbig-Haro object with the designation HH 909A, marking the spot where some of the fast-moving gas is self-illuminating after colliding with slower-moving gas within the nebula.
Additional Herbig-Haro objects were also found along the star's flow axis, beyond the edges of the image, to the right and left.
The researchers note that the dark band in the center of the nebula is a circumstellar disk—a pool of gas and dust that surrounds the star. Circumstellar disks typically exist around young stars and provide the materials needed to build planets.
"The reason the disk appears as a strip instead of a circle in this image is that the viewing direction is edge-on, so only one side of the disk is exposed to observers on Earth."
According to scientists, the nebula's central star is a young stellar object embedded within the disk.
"The background nebulae, shown in blue in this image, reflect light from a nearby star that lies outside the image frame."
