Near-infrared observations of line emission from excited H2 and in the continuum are reported in the direction of the Orion molecular cloud OMC1, using the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope UT4, equipped with the NAOS adaptive optics system and the CONICA infrared array camera. Spatial resolution has been achieved at close to the diffraction limit of the telescope (0.08" - 0.12") and images show a wealth of morphological detail. Structure is not fractal but shows two preferred scale sizes of 2.4" (1100 AU) and 1.2" (540 AU), where the larger scale may be associated with star formation.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0312087,
title = {VLT/NACO infrared adaptive optics images of small scale structures in OMC1},
author = {Francois Lacombe and Eric Gendron and Daniel Rouan and Yann Clenet and Jean-Louis Lemaire and Anne-Marie Lagrange and David Mouillet and Gerard Rousset and Claude Marlot and Philippe Feautrier and M. Gustafsson and David Field and Bernard Servan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0312087},
year = {2009}
}