Hubble image archive

HD 106906 Compass Image

Date: Jan 1, 2020
Mission: Hubble Space Telescope
Archive ID: hubblesite-images-2020-53-4786-image

By Kakha Giorgashvili January 1, 2020

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows one possible orbit (dashed ellipse) of the 11-Jupiter-mass exoplanet HD 106906 b. This remote world is widely separated from its host stars, whose brilliant light is masked here to allow the planet to be seen. The planet resides outside its system's circumstellar debris disk, which is akin to our own Kuiper Belt of small, icy bodies beyond Neptune. The disk itself is asymmetric and distorted, perhaps due to the gravitational tug of the wayward planet. Other points of light in the image are background stars.

Credits

NASA, ESA, M. Nguyen (University of California, Berkeley), R. De Rosa (European Southern Observatory), and P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley and SETI Institute)

Image Details

About The Object
Object Name	HD 106906 and exoplanet HD 106906b
Object Description	exoplanet orbiting binary star system
R.A. Position	12:17:53.114
Dec. Position	-55:58:32.11
Constellation	Crux
Distance	336 light-years
Dimensions	Image is about 25 arc seconds across (about 0.04 light-years or over 2500 AU)
About The Data
Data Description	The HST observations include those from program (P. Kalas)
Instrument	STIS
Exposure Dates	24 Feb 2017
Filters	MIRVIS
About The Image
Color Info	These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the STIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The color results from assigning a blue hue to the monochromatic (grayscale) image.