Star Blasts Planet With X-rays

Chandra_490_1024

chandra_490 September 13th, 2011

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Hamburg/S.Schröter et al; Optical: NASA/NSF/IPAC-Caltech/UMass/2MASS, UNC/CTIO/PROMPT; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

This graphic contains an image (left) and illustration (right) of a nearby star, named CoRoT-2a, and an orbiting planet known as CoRoT-2b. The image contains X-rays from Chandra (purple) of CoRoT-2a along with optical and infrared data of the field of view in which it is found. CoRoT-2b, which is not seen in this image, orbits extremely closely to the star. In fact, the separation between the star and planet is only about 3 percent of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The Chandra data indicate that the planet is being blasted by X-rays with such intensity that some 5 million tons of material are being eroded from the planet every second.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/corot/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html

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Image Details

Image Type
Collage
Object Name
CoRoT-2a
Subject - Milky Way
Planet > Feature > Atmosphere
Planet > Special Cases > Transiting
Star > Spectral Type > G

Distance

Universescale1
880 light years

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 19h 27m 6.4s
DEC = 1° 23’ 2.5”
Constellation
Aquila

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Purple Chandra (ACIS) X-ray (X-ray) 826.7 pm
Red 2MASS Infrared (J-band) 1.3 µm
Green 2MASS Infrared (H-band) 1.7 µm
Blue 2MASS Infrared (K-band) 2.2 µm
Spectrum_xray1
Purple
Red
Green
Blue
Chandra_490_1280
×
ID
490
Subject Category
B.1.2.2   B.1.3.1   B.3.3.5  
Subject Name
CoRoT-2a
Credits
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Hamburg/S.Schröter et al; Optical: NASA/NSF/IPAC-Caltech/UMass/2MASS, UNC/CTIO/PROMPT; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Release Date
2011-09-13
Lightyears
880
Redshift
880
Reference Url
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/corot/
Type
Collage
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Chandra, 2MASS, 2MASS, 2MASS
Instrument
ACIS, -, -, -
Color Assignment
Purple, Red, Green, Blue
Band
X-ray, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
X-ray, J-band, H-band, K-band
Central Wavelength
0.8267, 1.25e3, 1.65e3, 2.17e3
Start Time
2010-06-24T14:21:13, -, -, -
Integration Time
15000, -, -, -
Dataset ID
10989, -, -, -
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
291.7768063, 1.3840199
Reference Dimension
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Position
FITS Header
Notes
WCS retrieved using CXCs PinpointWCS
Creator (Curator)
Chandra X-ray Observatory
URL
http://chandra.harvard.edu
Name
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Email
cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
Telephone
617.496.7941
Address
60 Garden St.
City
Cambridge
State/Province
MA
Postal Code
02138
Country
USA
Rights
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
Publisher
Chandra X-ray Center
Publisher ID
chandra
Resource ID
corot.tif
Metadata Date
2013-09-20T09:53:45-04:00
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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Universescalefull
880 light years

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