THE DARK CHAMAELEON

A closer look at a star factory cloaked in shadow on Earth's doorstep

- 

VICTOR M BLANCO 4-METER TELESCOPE, 10 JUNE 2025

The Chamaeleon I dark cloud is one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth. It sits at the surface of the Local Bubble - the sparsely populated region of the Milky Way's Orion arm through which our Solar System has been travelling for the past five to 10 million years - and, together with the Chamaeleon II and Chamaeleon III dark clouds, forms part of a larger structure, the Chamaeleon Complex. As well as containing three reflection nebulae, the region is thought to be home to 200-300 stars with a median age of just one or two million years.

Astronomers say the birth of our own Sun and the Solar System planets can be traced back to huge clouds of gas and dust not unlike those seen in this image.

Odd one out