A new image taken by the powerful Dark Energy Camera (DECam) has revealed a breathtaking view of one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth—the Chamaeleon I dark cloud.
Located about 500 light-years away, this cloud is a dense and cold region of gas and dust where new stars are being born.
It’s part of a larger collection of dark clouds known as the Chamaeleon Complex, which stretches across several southern constellations including Chamaeleon, Apus, Musca, Carina, and Octans.
Captured using the 570-megapixel DECam mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile, this image highlights how stars like our sun begin their lives in deep, dusty clouds.
These clouds are difficult to see with regular telescopes because they block visible light.
However, DECam can detect subtle pockets of reflected light, giving astronomers a peek into these hidden stellar nurseries.
At the center of the image is a glowing region called Cederblad 111, a reflection nebula that shines not by generating its own light, but by reflecting the light of nearby young stars.
These stars aren’t hot enough to make the gas glow on its own, but their light bounces off the surrounding dust, creating a visible glow.
Just above it is another reflection nebula, Cederblad 110, shaped like a faint “C.” It’s also lit by young stars and forms another bright spot in this otherwise dark landscape.
Lower in the image, an orange-colored structure called the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula stretches out like delicate wings. This unusual feature forms when a newborn star sends streams of gas blasting outward.
These fast-moving jets carve a tunnel through the cloud, allowing light from the star to shine out and reflect off the tunnel walls, producing the glowing, wispy shapes seen in the image.
Sprinkled throughout the Chamaeleon I cloud are small red spots known as Herbig-Haro objects. These form when jets of gas from baby stars crash into slower-moving material around them. One such object appears as a tiny red dot between the two main nebulae, showing just how dynamic and active this region is.
Astronomers believe that Chamaeleon I is around two billion years old and contains 200 to 300 stars, many of which are still forming.
By studying regions like this, scientists hope to better understand how stars and planetary systems—including our own solar system—come into existence from the quiet darkness of interstellar clouds.
