Hubble image archive
HST ACS/HRC Wide View of Fomalhaut System
This image of the area around the star Fomalhaut was taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The region around Fomalhaut's location is black because astronomers used the Advanced Camera's coronagraph to block out the star's brig...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2008
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2008-39-2431-image
This image of the area around the star Fomalhaut was taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The region around Fomalhaut's location is black because astronomers used the Advanced Camera's coronagraph to block out the star's bright glare so that a dim planet, Fomalhaut b, could be seen. The planet is 1 billion times fainter than its star. The radial streaks are scattered starlight. The red dot at lower left is a background star.
The Fomalhaut system is 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis.
This false-color image was taken in October 2004 and July 2006.
Credits
NASA, ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Fomalhaut, HD 216956, Fomalhaut b |
| Object Description | Exoplanet Orbiting Fomalhaut |
| R.A. Position | 22h 57m 39.04s |
| Dec. Position | -29° 37' 20.04" |
| Constellation | Piscis Austrinus |
| Distance | 25 light-years (8 parsecs) |
| Dimensions | This image is roughly 375 AU (49 arcseconds) wide. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | HST Proposal: P. Kalas and J. Graham (University of California, Berkeley) and M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center); and 10598: P. Kalas, J. Graham, and E. Chiang (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory). The science team includes: P. Kalas and E. Chiang (University of California, Berkeley), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), J. Krist and K. Stapelfeldt (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), and J. Graham (University of California, Berkeley). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/HRC |
| Exposure Dates | October 2004 and July 2006, Exposure Time: 11.4 hours |
| Filters | F435W (B), F606W (V), and F814W (I) |
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Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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