Hubble image archive
Hubble and Webb Observations of Vega Circumstellar Disk
Caption [left]A Hubble Space Telescope false-color view of a 100-billion-mile-wide disk of dust around the summer star Vega. Hubble detects reflected light from dust that is the size of smoke particles largely in a halo on the periphery of the disk. The disk is very smooth, with...
- Date
- Nov 1, 2024
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2024-030-01jbf20fgytrr4e0qvbwy516r1
Caption
[left]
A Hubble Space Telescope false-color view of a 100-billion-mile-wide disk of dust around the summer star Vega. Hubble detects reflected light from dust that is the size of smoke particles largely in a halo on the periphery of the disk. The disk is very smooth, with no evidence of embedded large planets. The black spot at the center blocks out the bright glow of the hot young star.
[right]
The James Webb Space Telescope resolves the glow of warm dust in a disk halo, at 23 billion miles out. The outer disk (analogous to the solar system’s Kuiper Belt) extends from 7 billion miles to 15 billion miles. The inner disk extends from the inner edge of the outer disk down to close proximity to the star. There is a notable dip in surface brightness of the inner disk from approximately 3.7 to 7.2 billion miles. The black spot at the center is due to lack of data from saturation.
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Vega |
| Object Description | Dusty debris disk |
| R.A. Position | 18:36:56.34 |
| Dec. Position | +38:47:01.28 |
| Constellation | Lyra |
| Distance | 25 light-years |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The Hubble observations include those from program (S. Wolff) and the Webb observations include those from program (C. Beichman and A. Gáspár) |
| Instrument | Hubble: STIS; Webb: MIRI |
| Exposure Dates | Hubble: April 2022 - February 2023; Webb: August 2023 |
| Filters | Hubble: STIS 50CORON; Webb: MIRI F2550W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images were acquired by the STIS instrument on the Hubble and MIRI instrument on Webb. The color results from assigning a hue to a monochromatic (grayscale) image, blue for Hubble and orange for Webb. |
| About The Image | |
| Compass and Scale Image | An astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made. |
More Images From This Period
Downloads
- Full Res (For Display), 2105 X 1058, PNG (3.41 MB)
- 2105 X 1058, TIF (3.93 MB)
- 2000 X 1005, JPG (945.14 KB)
- Hubble Only - Full Res (For Display), 2093 X 2091, PNG (7.26 MB)
- Hubble Only - Full Res (For Print), 2093 X 2091, TIF (7.53 MB)
- Hubble Only, 2000 X 1998, JPG (1.96 MB)
- Webb Only - Full Res (For Display), 2148 X 2148, PNG (3.06 MB)
- Webb Only - Full Res (For Print), 2148 X 2148, TIF (3.66 MB)
- Webb Only, 2000 X 2000, JPG (648.72 KB)
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov