The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) has captured a breathtaking image of Chamaeleon I, a prominent star-forming cloud that resembles a cosmic masterpiece. This intricate cloud, part of the larger Chamaeleon Complex, is the closest active star-forming region to Earth, located approximately 500 light-years away.
The new image, taken by the 570-megapixel DECam on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, showcases a dramatic interplay of inky black interstellar dust and bright reflection nebulae. These reflection nebulae, such as the central Cederblad 111 and the C-shaped Cederblad 110, glow by reflecting the light of nearby young stars that are not yet hot enough to ionize the surrounding gas.
Also visible in the image is the orange-tinted Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula, formed by streams of matter ejected from the poles of a young, low-mass star. These outflows carve tunnels through the molecular gas, allowing the star's light to escape and scatter. Astronomers have also identified Herbig–Haro objects – small, red patches where jets of gas from newly born stars collide with the surrounding cloud, causing the gas to glow.
Chamaeleon I is a crucial region for astronomers studying stellar birth. It's estimated to be around two billion years old and is home to about 200–300 stars. The dense, cold pockets of molecular gas within the cloud undergo gravitational contraction, leading to the birth of new stars, much like the process that formed our own Sun and Solar System billions of years ago.
The Dark Energy Camera, originally designed for the Dark Energy Survey to study the universe's accelerated expansion, proves its versatility by capturing such detailed images of star-forming regions. Its wide field of view, high sensitivity, and ability to image across visible and near-infrared wavelengths make it a powerful tool for understanding the early stages of stellar evolution and the chemical composition of icy molecules in these stellar nurseries.