ALMA observes a ring around the bright star Fomalhaut

Eso_eso1216a_1024

eso_eso1216a April 12th, 2012

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Acknowledgement: A.C. Boley (University of Florida, Sagan Fellow), M.J. Payne, E.B. Ford, M. Shabran (University of Florida), S. Corder (North American ALMA Science Center, National Radio Astronomy Observatory), and W. Dent (ALMA, Chile), P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

This view shows a new picture of the dust ring around the bright star Fomalhaut from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The underlying blue picture shows an earlier picture obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The new ALMA image has given astronomers a major breakthrough in understanding a nearby planetary system and provided valuable clues about how such systems form and evolve. Note that ALMA has so far only observed a part of the ring.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1216a/

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
Fomalhaut
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Circumstellar Material
Eso_eso1216a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 22h 57m 39.0s
DEC = -29° 37’ 19.8”
Orientation
North is 0.4° CW
Field of View
2.7 x 2.9 degrees
Constellation
Piscis Austrinus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange ALMA (None) Millimeter -
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical -
Eso_eso1216a_1280
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ID
eso1216a
Subject Category
B.3.7  
Subject Name
Fomalhaut
Credits
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Acknowledgement: A.C. Boley (University of Florida, Sagan Fellow), M.J. Payne, E.B. Ford, M. Shabran (University of Florida), S. Corder (North American ALMA Science Center, National Radio Astronomy Observatory), and W. Dent (ALMA, Chile), P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Release Date
2012-04-12T15:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1216a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
None, ACS
Color Assignment
Orange, Blue
Band
Millimeter, Optical
Bandpass
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
344.412654, -29.622174
Reference Dimension
9563.0, 10277.0
Reference Pixel
4799.86763498, 5133.40639374
Scale
-0.00028332758, 0.00028332758
Rotation
-0.41881078826
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Position
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Bill Saxton
Email
bsaxton@nrao.edu
Telephone
434-296-0268
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
eso1216a
Metadata Date
2012-04-12T10:49:41+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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