It's at least 5 times as massive as the Sun and shines 40,000 times more brilliantly. The central void extends about 316 million miles from the star, more than three times the Earth's distance from the Sun. Prior observations did not have sufficient resolution to detect its companion star, which orbits around LkHa101 at a distance of about 2.6 billion miles. Interferometer technology takes the light from two or more observing sources targeting the same object and combines it to create an interference pattern, similar to the ripple pattern in a puddle caused by rain. A computer analyzes the interference pattern and constructs the image.
Infrared light is invisible to the human eye, but some types are perceived as heat.
The dust cloud around LkHa101 is larger than the NIRC images indicate, because there is a great deal of outlying material that is cooler than what NIRC can see.