Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2025

26 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 ASTRO PUBLISHING is the nearest active star-forming re- gion to Earth. This dark cloud is estimated to be around two billion years old and is home to about 200–300 stars. Chamaeleon I is just a small compo- nent of the larger Chamaeleon Com- plex, an enormous active stellar birthplace that occupies almost the entirety of the southern constella- tion Chamaeleon, even overlapping into Apus, Musca, Carina and Octans. The Chamaeleon Complex also in- cludes the Chamaeleon II and Cha- maeleon III dark clouds, which show little and no active star formation, respectively. Near the center of this image, brightly glowing from within the thick cosmic dust, is one of Chamaeleon I’s notable features, the stunning reflection nebula Ceder- blad 111. Reflection nebulae are clouds of gas and dust that do not create their own light, but instead shine by re- flecting the light from nearby stars. This happens in the sur- roundings of newly formed stars that are not hot enough to excite the hydrogen atoms of the cloud, as is the case for emission nebulae. Instead, their light bounces off of the particles within the cloud. Cederblad 110, a second reflection nebula within Chamaeleon I, can be seen just above Cederblad 111 with its recognizable C- shape. Like Cederblad 111, Cederblad 110 lies close to an active low- mass star forming region where the light of young by NOIRLab Josie Fenske Sparse pockets of light amongst dark clouds of Chamaeleon I T he origin of our Sun, and all the planets, comets and as- teroids that orbit it, can be traced back to their birthplace inside a massive cloud of cold gas and dust, not unlike the billowing molecular cloud, featured in the image on the next page. Found within these cool regions of highly condensed inter- stellar material are stellar nurseries where young stars are emerging from the swirling gaseous plumes. These regions are also home to neb- ulae that shine bright with the reflected light of newly formed stars. This image was captured with the 570-megapixel Department of Energy- fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mount- ed on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víc- tor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observa- tory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. It showcases the atramentous molecu- lar cloud known as the Chamaeleon I dark cloud. Located about 500 light- years away, Chamaeleon I T his video highlights the main substructures of Chamaeleon I. [CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA − Image Processing: T.A. Rec- tor (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF NOIRLab) − Motion graphics: Mik Garrison − Music: Scanning the Unknown - Mik Garrison]