eso_eso0503a January 19th, 2005
Credit: ESO
Enhanced, false-colour near-infrared image of AB Dor A and C. The faint companion "AB Dor C" — seen as the pink dot at 8 o'clock — is 120 times fainter than its primary star. The tiny separation between A and C, only 0.156 arcsec, is smaller than a one Euro coin seen at 20 km distance. Nevertheless, the new NACO SDI camera was able to distinguish it as a "redder" dot surrounded by the "bluer" light from AB Dor A. The orbit of AB Dor C around AB Dor A is shown as a yellow ellipse. It takes 11.75 years for the 93 Jupiter-mass companion to complete this orbit.
Provider: European Southern Observatory
Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0503a/
Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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