Hubble image archive
Kuiper Belt Object Occults Star
This is an artist's impression of a small Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) occulting a star. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recorded this brief event and allowed astronomers to determine that the KBO was only one-half of a mile across, setting a new record for the smallest object ever see...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2009
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2009-33-2657-image
This is an artist's impression of a small Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) occulting a star. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recorded this brief event and allowed astronomers to determine that the KBO was only one-half of a mile across, setting a new record for the smallest object ever seen in the Kuiper Belt.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Description | Kuiper Belt Object |
| Distance | 4.2 billion miles (6.8 billion kilometers) |
| Dimensions | 3,200 feet across |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The science team includes: H. Schlichting (California Institute of Technology/University of Toronto), E. Ofek (California Institute of Technology/Einstein Fellow), M. Wenz (NASA/GSFC), R. Sari (California Institute of Technology/Hebrew University), A. Gal-Yam (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel), M. Livio and E. Nelan (STScI), and S. Zucker (Tel Aviv University). |
| Instrument | HST>FGS |
More Images From This Period
Downloads
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov