Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2022

42 red telescopes on two of the best observing sites on the planet. Its counterpart, Gemini North, is lo- cated near the summit of Maunakea in Hawai’i. The jet in the first image, named MHO 2147, is roughly 10,000 light- years from Earth, and lies in the galactic plane of the Milky Way, close to the boundary between the constellations Sagittarius and Ophi- uchus. MHO 2147 snakes across a starry backdrop in the image — an appropriately serpentine appear- ance for an object close to Ophi- uchus. Like many of the 88 modern astronomical constellations, Ophi- Sidewinding young stellar jets spied by Gemini South Y oung stellar jets are a com- mon by-product of star for- mation and are thought to be caused by the interplay between the magnetic fields of rotating young stars and the disks of gas surround- ing them. These interactions eject twin torrents of ionized gas in oppo- site directions, such as those pic- tured in two images captured by astronomers using the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón on the edge of the Chilean Andes. Gemini South is one half of the interna- tional Gemini Observatory, a Pro- gram of NSF’s NOIRLab, that com- prises twin 8.1-meter optical/infra- by NOIRLab Vanessa Thomas T he sinuous young stellar jet, MHO 2147, meanders lazily across a field of stars in this image captured from Chile by the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The stellar jet is the outflow from a young star that is embedded in an infrared dark cloud. Astronomers suspect its sidewinding ap- pearance is caused by the gravitational attraction of companion stars. These crys- tal-clear observations were made using the Gemini South telescope’s adaptive optics system, which helps astronomers counteract the blurring effects of atmos- pheric turbulence. [International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA. Ack.: Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)]