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Credit: Gemini Observatory/National Science Foundation/C. Aspin
This black-and-white, K-band image of a young star named AFGL 2591 shows some fainter lobe structure and a bow shock to the left of the massive star that is not readily apparent in the color version of the image. This part of the expanding nebula of gas and dust around AFGL 2591 star is hidden from view by a dense and extensive disk (or torus) of material encircling the star.
AFGL 2591 is located within the Milky Way more than 3,000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Cygnus. Over the course of the last few thousand years, it has created a vast expanding nebula larger than 500 times the diameter of our solar system. The star is at least 10 times the size of the Sun, and over 20,000 times as bright, but perhaps only one million years old.
This high-contrast image is part of a series of early images taken with the Gemini Near Infrared Imager (NIRI) instrument during its commissioning on the Gemini North telescope on Hawaii¹s Mauna Kea. Once fully operational later this year, NIRI will be the prime near-infrared instrument on Gemini North.
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NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. Last updated 23 July, 2001. |
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