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NICMOS Archival Images of Five Debris Disks
These images reveal five planetary debris disks uncovered in images around young stars that astronomers retrieved from the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer observed the disks in near-infrared light between 1999 and 2007. Astronomers used a coronagraph to block out the bright light from each star so they could analyze the faint, reflected light off dust particles in the disks. Recently applied new image processing techniques allowed astronomers to subtract excess starlight that escaped beyond the coronagraph to clearly reveal the debris disks. The disks around HD 30447, HD 35841, and HD 141943 appear edge-on; the other two appear inclined. The Sun-like star HD 141943 is about the same age as our Sun when terrestrial planets like Earth were forming from material in its debris disk.
About the Data
- Data DescriptionData DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.The NICMOS data for these images are from the HST proposals: Object Name: HD 141943 R.A.: 15h 53m 27s.30 Dec.: -42° 16' 0".72 Proposals: 10527 (PI: D. Hines, STScI) and 10849 (PI: S. Metchev, Stonybrook U.) Filters: F110W and F160W Exposure Date: 2006, 2007 Object Name: HD 191089 R.A.: 20h 9m 5s.21 Dec.: -26° 13' 26".53 Proposals: 10527 (PI: D. Hines, STScI) and 10849 (PI: S. Metchev, Stonybrook U.) Filter: F110W Exposure Date: 2007 Object Name: HD 202917 R.A.: 21h 20m 49s.93 Dec.: -53° 2' 2".29 Proposals: 10527 (PI: D. Hines, STScI), 10849 (PI: S. Metchev, Stonybrook U.), and 7226 (PI: E. Becklin, UCLA ) Filters: F110W and F160W Exposure Date: 1999, 2007 Object Name: HD 30447 R.A.: 4h 46m 49s.53 Dec.: -26° 18' 8".84 Proposal: 10177 (PI: G. Schneider, U. of Arizona) Filter: F110W Exposure Date: 2005 Object Name: HD 35841 R.A.: 5h 26m 36s.59 Dec.: -22° 29' 23".72 Proposal: 10177 (PI: G. Schneider, U. of Arizona) Filter: F110W Exposure Date: 2005 - InstrumentInstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.HST>NICMOS
- FiltersFiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.F110W and F160W
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.HD 141943, HD 191089, HD 202917, HD 30447, HD 35841
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Circumstellar Disks
- Release DateApril 24, 2014
- Science ReleaseAstronomical Forensics Uncover Planetary Disks in Hubble Archive
- Credit
Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn 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.
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Last Updated
Aug 17, 2025
Contact
Media
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
