A stellar fingerprint

Esahubble_potw1609a_1024

esahubble_potw1609a February 29th, 2016

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)

Showcased at the centre of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is an emission-line star known as IRAS 12196-6300. Located just under 2300 light-years from Earth, this star displays prominent emission lines, meaning that the stars light, dispersed into a spectrum, shows up as a rainbow of colours marked with a characteristic pattern of dark and bright lines. The characteristics of these lines, when compared to the fingerprints left by particular atoms and molecules, can be used to reveal IRAS 12196-6300s chemical composition. Under 10 million years old and not yet burning hydrogen at its core, unlike the Sun, this star is still in its infancy. Further evidence of IRAS 12196-6300s youth is provided by the presence of reflection nebulae. These hazy clouds, pictured floating above and below IRAS 12196-6300, are created when light from a star reflects off a high concentration of nearby dust, such as the dusty material still remaining from IRAS 12196-6300s formation.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1609a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IRAS 12196-6300
Subject - Milky Way
Star
Esahubble_potw1609a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 22m 23.1s
DEC = -63° 17’ 23.7”
Orientation
North is 8.2° CCW
Field of View
1.6 x 1.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Crux

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Hubble (ACS) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Orange
Cyan
Esahubble_potw1609a_1280
×
ID
potw1609a
Subject Category
B.3  
Subject Name
IRAS 12196-6300
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)
Release Date
2016-02-29T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1609a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Orange, Cyan
Band
Infrared, Optical
Bandpass
I, V
Central Wavelength
814, 606
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
185.596396476, -63.2899267867
Reference Dimension
1937.0, 1734.0
Reference Pixel
968.5, 867.0
Scale
-1.40966592476e-05, 1.40966592476e-05
Rotation
8.2
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1609a
Metadata Date
2015-10-06T11:07:21+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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