‘Heavenly rains’: Ethereal structure in the sky rivals famous ‘Pillars of Creation’ — Space photo of the week

This spectacular image of an emission nebula — a cloud of gas and dust lit up by nearby stars — and a nearby star cluster has been published by the Gemini Observatory to mark its 25th anniversary.

Reminiscent of the iconic “Pillars of Creation” image of the Eagle Nebula taken in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope and more recently by the James Webb Space Telescope, the anniversary image shows the emission nebula, NGC 6820, as well as the star cluster NGC 6823.

The image, which is available as a zoomable version online, captures the hot, massive stars in NGC 6823 — shown as specks of blue-white light — illuminating the veil of red gas that comprises NGC 6820. The pillars in the image are gas and dust sculpted by the stars’ intense radiation.

NGC 6820 and NGC 6823 lie in the middle of the Summer Triangle, the famous asterism created by the bright stars Deneb, Vega and Altair. They’re visible low in the west immediately after dark, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.

In Hawaii — home to the Gemini North telescope, which began operations in June 1999 — the Summer Triangle is known as Mānaiakalani, the Great Fishhook of Maui. As part of the image’s release, it’s been named Ua ‘Ōhi’a Lani, which means the Heavenly ‘Ōhi’a Rains, by four local high school students participating in the University of Hawaii’s Project Hōkūlani summer internship.

The image was taken using the Gemini North telescope on the summit of Maunakea, a shield volcano on Hawaii that hosts 13 large telescope observatories. However, the International Gemini Observatory comprises twin 8-meter telescopes, with the other — Gemini South — located on Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes. It achieved first light in November 2000. Together, the two scopes give astronomers access to nearly the entire night sky.

“This image is crimson and red like lava because of the abundance of hydrogen gas present in the nebula,” Hope Arthur, one of the Gemini interns, said in a statement. The name comes from a story about Pele, the goddess of volcanoes and fire in Hawaiian religion and the creator of the Hawaiian Islands.

“One of Pele’s most well-known stories is that of ‘Ōhi’a and Lehua. Their story is about regrowth after tragedy and the act of new beginnings, which we felt was evocative of the cycle of stellar life, death, and rebirth,” Arthur said.

“The baby blue stars in the image reminded us of rain and how, in the story of ‘Ōhi’a and Lehua, when you pick the lehua blossoms, it rains,” added Iolani Sanches, an intern at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.

For more sublime space images, check out our Space Photo of the Week archives.