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beta Pictoris b
Caption: This composite of two images shows the planet beta Pictoris b and a disk of material both of which orbit the young star beta Pictoris. Both are taken in infrared light. The inner image was one of the first pictures taken of a planet around another star (an exoplanet). This image was made using a technique called adaptive optics which removes the blurring effect of the Earth's atmosphere that spreads out a star's light. The star's light is then concentrated tightly enough that it can be hidden behind a blocking circle (shown here in black) called a coronagraph. The ripples around this are artifacts of the imaging process. Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant planet about twelve times the mass of Jupiter, appears as a dot above and to the left of the black circle.
The outer image shows the thermal emission from the warm disk of material surrounding the young star beta Pictoris. As we are viewing this disk edge-on it appears as a line. This disk of gas and dust provided the material to form beta Pictoris b.
Credit: ESO/A.-M. Lagrange et al. credit link
Credit: ESO/A.-M. Lagrange et al. credit link
License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons تخصیص 4.0 بینالمللی (CC BY 4.0) icons
Planet formation around the star TW Hydrae
Caption: This image shows the disk around the young star TW Hydrae. This star is only about 10 million years old, young enough that planets are still forming in a disk of gas and dust around it. This image was created using an array of submillimetre telescopes, each of which looks like a satellite dish. The signals from these telescopes were combined by a central processing computer to make this image. The lighter and darker patches show areas of the disk where there is more or less dust respectively. The dark rings and bright rings are evidence that the dust in the disk has been shepherded into some orbits and away from others. This is likely because there is one or more planets that are still forming hidden in the disk.
The whole image shows the disk around TW Hydrae out to a distance of about 70 astronomical units frm the central star. The two outer dark rings are separated from the central star by approximately the average distance between the Sun and Uranus and the average distance between the Sun and Pluto. The inner central hole appears to have been carved out by a planet orbiting TW Hydrae at a distance similar to the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
Credit: S. Andrews (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA); B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) credit link
Credit: S. Andrews (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA); B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) credit link
License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons تخصیص 4.0 بینالمللی (CC BY 4.0) icons
Related Activities
Creating Asteroids
astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website) Description: Have fun, building asteroids using clay!License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons تخصیص 4.0 بینالمللی (CC BY 4.0) icons
Tags: Hands-on , Model Age Ranges: 4-6 , 6-8 , 8-10 Education Level: Pre-school , Primary Areas of Learning: Modelling , Social Research Costs: Medium Cost Duration: 1 hour 30 mins Group Size: Group Skills: Communicating information , Developing and using models
