File:Light Cones of the Cha IRN (24109069837).png

English: Finally I have managed to piece together a version of this object that is not only compositionally satisfying, but also includes three wideband filters, giving it some truly stunning colors. Cha IRN is an abbreviation of Chamaeleon near-infrared reflection nebula.

Previous versions were taken from the southern end of the Chamaeleon mosaic. While I have long been infatuated with this object, I have never felt satisfied with the available data. I am now quite pleased with it. Luckily for us, some astronomers wanted to look at it some more, too.

By combining Stapelfeldt's observations from 2012 with Megeath's from last July these rich, astonishing colors were revealed. I was able to fill a few places their observations didn't cover with data from the 2009 Chamaeleon mosaic. The time disparities meant that the stars had shifted position either due to parallax or proper motion, so I had to scoot them around to get them to match.

Herbig-Haro object HH909A is blue bit of gas near the upper right part of the image, which I have annotated using Flickr's notes. It has moved dramatically over the 8 year period, and puffed out a bit, as well.

What causes the vibrant red colors in the image? Infrared light collected by HST allows us to see through dust. The more dust there is, the more the shorter wavelengths are attenuated/blocked by the dust, allowing only longer wavelengths to shine through. So where the color is reddest, you know there is a lot more dust. Where the colors are whiter, there is less dust.

The Chamaeleon complex is home to a lot of star formation, and this is just a small part of the southern part of the complex. Here, between the two cones of light, is likely a place where young stellar objects reside. As they form, jets and outflows erupt from the poles of these objects, which push around and punch holes in the dust and gas they formed from. A thick, disk-shaped band remains around the middle and can be seen crossing the two cones vertically.

Data from the following proposals were used to create this image.

A Snapshot WFC3 IR Survey of Spitzer/Hershel-Identified Protostars in Nearby Molecular Clouds Imaging of Newly-identified Edge-on Protoplanetary Disks in Nearby Star-Forming Regions Searching for the Bottom of the Initial Mass Function

Red: WFC3/IR F160W Green: ACS/WFC F814W Blue: ACS/WFC F606W

North is NOT up. It is 26.06° counter-clockwise from up.