GRAVITY discovers new double star in the Orion Trapezium Cluster (annotated)

As part of the first observations with the new GRAVITY instrument the team looked closely at the bright, young stars known as the Trapezium Cluster, located in the heart of the Orion star-forming region. Already, from these first data, GRAVITY made a discovery: one of the components of the cluster (Theta¹ Orionis F) was found to be a double star for the first time. The brighter known double star Theta¹ Orionis C is also well seen.

The background image comes from the ISAAC instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. The views of two of the stars from GRAVITY, shown as inserts, reveal far finer detail than could be detected with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.