The “first light” observations for the APOGEE South spectrograph. The dots show stars whose spectra were observed by APOGEE. Some example spectra are shown (colors are representative only, as APOGEE spectra are in the infrared).
The first light observations included spectra of supermassive stars in the Tarantula Nebula. This nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud is forming stars more rapidly than any other region in our Local Group of galaxies. It can only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere, underscoring the importance of APOGEE South’s location. The spectrograph will allow us to study the chemistry and evolution of the stars in the nebula in greater detail than ever before.
Tarantula Nebula image from Herschel/Spitzer
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