The disk around Iota Horologii

Eso_eso0033a_1024

eso_eso0033a October 13th, 2000

Credit: ESO

This image displays a dusty disk around the star iota Horologii (left) as compared with that of a "reference" star (right). At a distance of 56 light-years from Earth, Iota Horologii was already known to possess an extrasolar planet. The discovery of the disk may help to better understand how this exoplanetary system was formed. The observations were obtained with the ADONIS adaptive optics instrument at the ESO 3.6-metre telescope on La Silla. The strong stellar light in the central area of the two images has been blocked with an instrumental mask. While the image processing still leaves some unavoidable stray light around the reference star (mostly due to reflections within the instrument), a much brighter, diffuse disk around iota Horologii is clearly visible. Technical information: The intensity scale ranges from 0.1 (deep red) to 100 (white) mJy/arcsec 2 (surface brightness). The diameter of the mask is 1.0 arcsec, corresponding to 17 AU (2550 million km) at the distance of iota Horologii (56 light-years). The images are based on 150 integrations of 4 seconds each, i.e. a total exposure time of 10 min. The observing conditions were excellent (0.6 arcsec seeing) and the achieved image resolution by the adaptive optics system (approx. 0.11 arcsec) is near the best possible (the "diffraction limit") at this wavelength (H-band at 1.64 µm).

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0033a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Iota Horologii
Subject - Milky Way
Star
Star > Circumstellar Material > Planetary System

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Pseudocolor ESO-3.6m (ADONIS) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Spectrum_base
Pseudocolor
Eso_eso0033a_1280
×
ID
eso0033a
Subject Category
B.3   B.3.7.1  
Subject Name
Iota Horologii
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2000-10-13T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0033a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
ESO 3.6-metre telescope
Instrument
ADONIS
Color Assignment
Pseudocolor
Band
Infrared
Bandpass
H
Central Wavelength
1640
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
800.0, 529.0
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.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
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso0033a
Metadata Date
2009-01-20T11:40:17+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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