Gemini Legacy Image Releases
October 2015
The HH 24 Jet Complex
A new Gemini Observatory image reveals a fascinating display of
celestial “fireworks” accompanying the birth of stars. The image
captures in unprecedented clarity the complex structures of a gas jet
complex emanating from a stellar nursery at supersonic speeds. The
striking new image hints at the remarkably dynamic (and messy)
process of star birth. Researchers believe they have also found a
collection of runaway (orphan) stars that result from all this activity.
Gemini Observatory has released one of the most detailed images ever obtained of emerging gas jets streaming from a region of newborn stars. The region, known as the Herbig-Haro
24 (HH 24) Complex, contains no less than six jets streaming from a small cluster of young
stars embedded in a molecular cloud in the direction of the constellation of Orion.
“This is the highest concentration of jets known anywhere,” says Principal Investigator Bo
Reipurth of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA), who adds, “We also think
the very dynamic environment causes some of the lowest mass stars in the area to be expelled, and our Gemini data are supporting that idea.”
Reipurth along with co-researcher, Colin Aspin, also at the IfA, are using the Gemini North
data from the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS), as well as the Gemini Near-Infrared Imager, to study the region which was discovered in 1963 by George Herbig and Len
Kuhi. Located in the Orion B cloud, at a distance of about 400 parsecs, or about 1,300 light
years from our Solar System, this region is rich in young stars and has been extensively studied in all types of light, from radio waves to X-rays.
“The Gemini data are the best ever obtained from the ground of this remarkable jet complex
and are showing us striking new detail,” says Aspin. Reipurth and Aspin add that they are
particularly interested in the fine structure and “excitation distribution” of these jets.
“One jet is highly disturbed, suggesting that the source may be a close binary whose orbit
perturbs the jet body,” says Reipurth.
January 2016
2015 Year in Review
GeminiFocus
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