Extreme Exoplanet-Hunting Telescope to Go Online This Fall

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/02/extreme-exoplanet-hunter/

February 23, 2013 - Wired.com
The search for exoplanets is about reach the next level with the Gemini Planet Imager, a new smart-car-sized telescope instrument that will use “extreme” adaptive optics to directly see distant planets around other stars.
Most large telescopes on Earth use adaptive optics — mirrors that wiggle a thousand times a second — to compensate for distortion from the atmosphere that causes the familiar “twinkling” effect of stars. With the technology, fuzzy globs of starlight are transformed into sharp pinpoints. GPI will take the method a step farther, using a mirror made from advanced silicon microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) instead of glass.
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Gemini Observatory Revisits Orion Nebula with Advanced Adaptive Optics System

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=39743

January 9, 2013 - Space Ref
A new image released today reveals how Gemini Observatory's most advanced adaptive optics (AO) system will help astronomers study the universe with an unprecedented level of clarity and detail by removing distortions due to the Earth's atmosphere. The photo, featuring an area on the outskirts of the famous Orion Nebula, illustrates the instrument's significant advancements over previous-generation AO systems.
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NASA Images Of The Week, Jan 13 (PHOTOS)

http://tinyurl.com/an58tlj

January 13, 2013 - Huffington Post Science

Cosmic 'bullets' slam Orion nebula in dazzling photo

http://tinyurl.com/a4fgoug

January 13, 2013 - NBC News
Astronomers have unveiled a spectacular new photo of cosmic "bullets" slicing through thick gas clouds at supersonic speeds in the famed Orion nebula.
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Next-Generation Adaptive Optics Brings Remarkable Details to Light in Stellar Nursery

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=126550

January 9, 2013 - National Science Foundation
A new image released today reveals how Gemini Observatory's most advanced adaptive optics (AO) system will help astronomers study the universe with an unprecedented level of clarity and detail by removing distortions due to the Earth's atmosphere. The photo, featuring an area on the outskirts of the famous Orion Nebula, illustrates the instrument's significant advancements over previous-generation AO systems
...

Event - Orion bullets shot in detail - Seven days: 4–10 January 2013

http://www.nature.com/news/seven-days-4-10-january-2013-1.12160

January 4-10, 2013 - Nature.com
The Gemini South telescope in Chile has been fitted with five lasers and three deformable mirrors, allowing astronomers to correct for atmospheric distortions over an exceptionally large field of view. On 9 January, at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, California, astronomers unveiled the telescope’s ultra-sharp portrait of the ‘bullets’ of gas seen in the Orion Nebula. In the image, clumps of iron gas (blue) race through the nebula, leaving behind pillars of hot, glowing hydrogen gas (orange).

The Orion Bullets

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130110.html

January 10, 2013 - Astronomy Picture of the Day