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Credit: GEMINI OBSERVATORY

Astronomers have begun to receive pictures from one of the twin infrared telescopes, Gemini North (above), based at Mauna Kea in Hawaii, which is being dedicated this week (25 June). One of the first images is of the planet Pluto and its moon Charon (inset).

The ground-based infrared telescope is more than twice as powerful as the Hubble space telescope and has an eight-metre mirror. Yet the twin Gemini telescopes will cost only £111m (US$176 million), a fraction of Hubble's $3 billion.

The project is an international effort, with most support coming from the United States and Britain. Gemini South is under construction at Cerro Pachon, Chile.

Gemini is able to partially correct for atmospheric distortions producing high-quality images. On Monday this week, astronomers received a picture with a resolution of 0.08 arcseconds.