Art/Illustration

Approximate relative orbital sizes (top) and relative diameters (below). Note that it appears UB 313 passes inside Pluto's orbit, but this is due to the fact that UB 313s orbit is tilted significantly more than Pluto's orbit relative to the plane of the solar system (UB 313s orbit is tilted almost 45° and Pluto's is about 17°).

An artist's conception of the Epsilon Indi system showing Epsilon Indi and the brown-dwarf binary companions. Due to the perspective of the brown dwarf companions, the relative sizes are not represented in this illustration. See Press Release for details Full Resolution TIF (18.9 MB) Medium Resolution JPG (106 KB) Gemini Observatory Image/Video Usage Policy

15 Sge is a star very much like our sun that is located 57.7 light years away. The star is much larger than the object orbiting it, but looks small in this artist's interpretation because it is farther away. Orbiting far from the star is a companion about 65 times the mass of Jupiter. It is a brown dwarf, more massive than a planet, but too small to produce energy by nuclear fusion as a star does. It is glowing with its own heat.

An artist's rendition shows irregular satellites around Jupiter after a collision. Jupiter's four large moons are shown for orbital scale. Medium Resolution JPG (70.27 KB) Full Resolution TIF (3.4 MB) Gemini Observatory Image/Video Usage Policy

This timeline shows some pivotal events in the history of the Universe which is assumed to have begun with the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago. The "Redshift Desert" is a region where the light from galaxies has been redshifted (stretched by the expansion of the Universe) into a region of the spectrum where a natural glow in the Earth's atmosphere interferes with key spectroscopic features of many of these galaxies. This interference is especially problematic when trying to study dimmer galaxies in the early Universe.

Illustration showing Gemini's locations on the Earth and how this allows Gemini to see the entire sky. Also available as broadcast quality animation upon request. Gemini Observatory Image/Video Usage Policy