Hubble image archive
TW Hydrae Disk
Comparison images from the Hubble Space Telescope, taken several years apart, have uncovered two eerie shadows moving counterclockwise across a gas-and-dust disk encircling the young star TW Hydrae. The disks are tilted face-on to Earth and so give astronomers a bird's-eye view o...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2023
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2023-011-01gytfc2x4y0ybxgrzagzn51hr
Comparison images from the Hubble Space Telescope, taken several years apart, have uncovered two eerie shadows moving counterclockwise across a gas-and-dust disk encircling the young star TW Hydrae. The disks are tilted face-on to Earth and so give astronomers a bird's-eye view of what's happening around the star. The left image, taken in 2016, shows just one shadow [A] at the 11:00 o'clock position. This shadow is cast by an inner disk that is slightly inclined to the outer disk and so blocks starlight. The picture on the left shows a second shadow that emerged from yet another nested disk [C] at the 7:00 o’clock position, as photographed in 2021. The original inner disk is marked [B] in this later view. The shadows rotate around the star at different rates like the hands on a clock. They are evidence for two unseen planets that have pulled dust into their orbits. This makes them slightly inclined to each other. This is a visible-light photo taken with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Artificial color, to enhance details, has been added.
Credits
Image
NASA, ESA, STScI, John Debes (AURA/STScI for ESA)
Image Processing
Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | TW Hydrae |
| Object Description | Face-on protoplanetary disk around a T Tauri star |
| R.A. Position | 11:01:51.9054 |
| Dec. Position | -34:42:17.0316 |
| Constellation | Hydra |
| Distance | 196 light-years |
| Dimensions | Each image is 6.14 arcsec across, about 0.005 light-years |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST observations include those from program (J. Debes) |
| Instrument | STIS/MIRVIS |
| Exposure Dates | June 7, 2021 |
| Filters | MIRVIS |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | The images are separate exposures acquired by the STIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The color results from assigning an orange hue to a monochromatic (grayscale) image. |
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Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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