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A Picture of Unsettled Planetary Youth
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Caption:
Debris Disk around Star HR 8799
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured this infrared image of a giant halo of very fine dust around the young star HR 8799, located 129 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. The brightest parts of this dust cloud (yellow-white) likely come from the outer cold disk similar to our own Kuiper belt (beyond Neptune's orbit). The huge extended dust halo is seen as orange-red.
Astronomers think that the three large planets known to orbit the star are disturbing small comet-like bodies, causing them to collide and kick up dust. The extended dust halo has a diameter of about 2,000 astronomical units, or 2,000 times the distance between Earth and the sun. For reference, the size of Pluto's orbit is tiny by comparison, with a diameter of about 80 astronomical units.
This image was captured by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer at an infrared wavelength of 70 microns in Jan. 2009.
Cataloging Keywords:
| Name | Value | Additional Values |
|---|---|---|
| Target | HR 8799 | |
| System | HR 8799 | |
| Target Type | Exoplanet | |
| Mission | Spitzer Space Telescope | |
| Instrument Host | Spitzer Space Telescope | |
| Host Type | Space Telescope | |
| Instrument | Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) | |
| Detector | ||
| Extra Keywords | Color, Disk, Dust, Infrared, Orbit | |
| Acquisition Date | ||
| Release Date | 2009-11-04 | |
| Date in Caption | ||
| Image Credit | NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz. | |
| Source | photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12336 | |
| Identifier | PIA12336 | |
