Gemini North Images Bow Shock Near Galactic Center
What's going on near the center of our Galaxy?
Glowing across the
electromagnetic spectrum,
the center of our
Milky Way Galaxy
is thought to be home to massive stars,
rotating gas rings, and a
massive black hole.
Now the
central Galactic zoo just got larger.
The 8-meter
Gemini North telescope in
Hawaii in its
first scientific observation has just imaged the
Galactic Center
and revealed a star only three light years out
colliding with gas and
dust.
The bow shock, similar to that caused by a
boat moving through water,
appears arrow-shaped and is visible on the upper right of the
above photograph taken in representative
infrared colors.
Gemini's new
flexible-mirror technology has imaged
this structure, known as
IRS8,
in finer detail than ever before.