The Orion Nebula as You've Never Seen it Before: Jaw-dropping New Image from Gemini

By Nancy Atkinson - January 9, 2013 at 11:13 PM UTC | Stars
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This is the part of the Orion nebula. Recognize it? You may not, as this stunning new image comes from the Gemini Observatory's recently-commissioned advanced adaptive optics (AO) system named GeMS. It shows clumps of gas ejected from deep within the Orion Nebula which are nicknamed 'Orion Bullets.'

"The combination of a constellation of five laser guide stars with multiple deformable mirrors allows us to expand significantly on what has previously been possible using adaptive optics in astronomy," said Benoit Neichel, who currently leads this adaptive optics program for Gemini. "For years our team has focused on developing this system, and to see this magnificent image, just hinting at its scientific potential, made our nights on the mountain - while most folks were celebrating the New Year's holiday - the best celebration ever!"

The team took the image on December 28, 2012.

About five years ago, astronomers took an image of the Orion Bullets using a previous version of adaptive optics called Altair. Gemini's instrument scientist for Altair, Chad Trujillo, pointed out that in one shot GeMS covers a significantly larger field-of-view than Altair and a higher quality image.

"The uniformity and performance across the image is amazing! In this new image, the pixels are 2.5 times finer and there are about 16 times more of them," he said. Both the correction quality and the field-of-view are considerably better than the previous generation of AO systems."

[caption id="attachment_99360" align="aligncenter" width="377" caption= "Detailed views of the Orion Bullet region. In each image pair, left is the Altair 2007 image and right is the new 2012 GeMS image. Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA

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Read more about the GeMS system at the Gemini Observatory website.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com