Butterfly’s Wing Also Known As Infraed Nebula

This ethereal image captured from international Gemini Observatory-NOIRLab, which looks as delicate as a butterfly’s wing.

However, a structure known as the Infrared Nebula located near the center of the even larger Chamaeleon I dark cloud, one of the nearest star-forming regions in our Milky Way.

The bright red object to the right of the image center marks where some of the fast-moving stream of gas lights up after colliding with slower-moving gas in the nebula. It is known as a Herbig-Haro (HH) object and has the designation HH 909A. Other Herbig-Haro objects have been found along the axis of the star’s outflow beyond the edges of the image to the right and left.

credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, Acknowledgments: Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), J. Miller (Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)