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Hubble Exoplanet Search Field in Sagittarius
This is an image of one-half of the Hubble Space Telescope field of view in the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS). The field contains approximately 150,000 stars, down to 30th magnitude. The stars in the Galactic disk and bulge have a mixture of colors and masses. The field is so crowded with stars because Hubble was looking across 26,000 light-years of space in the direction of the center of our galaxy.
Half of these stars are bright enough for Hubble to monitor for any small, brief and periodic dips in brightness caused by the passage of an exoplanet passing in front of the star, an event called a transit. Hubble took approximately 520 pictures of this field, at red and blue wavelengths, from Feb. 22-29, 2004. The green circles identify 9 stars that are orbited by planets with periods of a few days. Planets so close to their stars with such short orbital periods are called "hot Jupiters."
These are considered "candidate" exoplanets because most of them are too faint to allow for spectroscopic observations that would allow for a precise measure of the planet's mass. The Hubble observations allow for a robust statistical estimate of the possible "false positives," which suggests that at least 45 percent of the candidates must be genuine planets.
The bottom frame identifies one of two stars in the field where astronomers were able to spectroscopically measure the star's back-and-forth wobble due to the pull of the planet. The planet turns out to be less than 3.8 Jupiter masses.
The members of the SWEEPS science team are Kailash C. Sahu, Stefano Casertano, Howard E. Bond, Jeff Valenti, T. Ed Smith, Mario Livio, Nino Panagia, Thomas M. Brown, Will Clarkson and Stephen Lubow (Space Telescope Science Institute), Dante Minniti and Manuela Zoccali (Universidad Catolica de Chile), Nikolai Piskunov (Uppsala University), Timothy Brown (High Altitude Observatory), Alvio Renzini (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova), and R. Michael Rich (University of California at Los Angeles).
About the Object
- R.A. PositionR.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.17h 58m 59.99s
- Dec. PositionDec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.-29° 12' 0.0"
- ConstellationConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.Sagittarius
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.This image was created from HST data from proposal 9750: K. Sahu, and H. Bond (STScI), T. Brown (High Altitude Observatory, Boulder), S. Casertano and M. Livio (STScI), D. Minniti (Catholic University of Chile), N. Panagia (STScI), A. Renzini (Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Italy), R. Rich (University of California, Los Angeles), and M. Zoccali (Catholic University of Chile). The science team also includes J. Valenti, E. Smith, T. Brown, W. Clarkson, and S. Lubow (STScI), and N. Piskunov (Uppsala University, Sweden). - InstrumentInstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.HST>ACS/WFC
- Exposure DatesExposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.February 22 - 29, 2004, Exposure Time: 49 hours
- FiltersFiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.F606W (V) and F814W (I)
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.SWEEPS Field
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Stellar Field Near the Galactic Bulge
- Release DateOctober 4, 2006
- Science ReleaseHubble Finds Extrasolar Planets Far Across Galaxy
- Credit
This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using two different filters. Two filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F606W (V) Green: F606W (V) + F814W (I) Red: F814W (I)
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
