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AB Aurigae b Hubble Images

Wide image of dusty red accretion disc on left with two insets on right showing bright orb around occulted star.

Researchers were able to directly image newly forming exoplanet AB Aurigae b over a 13-year span using Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and its Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (NICMOS).

In the top right, Hubble's NICMOS image captured in 2007 shows AB Aurigae b in a due south position compared to its host star, which is covered by the instrument's coronagraph. The image captured in 2021 by STIS shows the protoplanet has moved in a counterclockwise motion over time.

About the Object

R.A. Position
R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
04 55 45.8
Dec. Position
Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
+30 03 04.3
Constellation
ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
Auriga
Distance
DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
About 520 light-years

About the Data

Data Description
Data 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.
HST observations include those from programs 11155 (M. Perrin) and 16447 (T. Currie)
Instrument
InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
HST>STIS, HST>NICMOS
Exposure Dates
Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
14 Sept. 2007, 04 Jan 2021, 08 Feb 2021, 03 Mar. 2021
Filters
FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
These images are exposures acquired by the NICMOS and STIS instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. The color results from assigning a color map to a monochromatic (grayscale) image.

Object Name
Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
AB Aurigae b
Object Description
Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
Jupiter-like protoplanet
Release Date
April 4, 2022
Science Release
Hubble Finds a Planet Forming in an Unconventional Way
Read the release
Credit
NASA, ESA, Thayne Currie (Subaru Telescope, Eureka Scientific Inc.); Image Processing: Thayne Currie (Subaru Telescope, Eureka Scientific Inc.), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

Protoplanet Around AB Aurigae (Artist's Concept)

This is an artist's illustration of a massive, newly forming exoplanet called AB Aurigae b. Researchers used new and archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Subaru Telescope to confirm this protoplanet is forming through an intense and violent process, called disk...