Globular Cluster M4 - NOAO Ground-Based Image

Esahubble_opo0319c_1024

esahubble_opo0319c July 10th, 2003

Credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF

Three unlikely companions - two burned-out stars and a planet - orbit each other near the crowded core of ancient globular cluster M4, of more than 100,000 stars. Radio astronomers discovered the white dwarf and the other burned-out star - a rapidly spinning neutron star, called a pulsar - a decade ago. The third companion's identity was a mystery. Was it a planet or a brown dwarf? The object was too small and too dim to image. Hubble observations of the dim white dwarf helped astronomers to precisely measure the mass of the mystery object (2.5 times larger than the mass of Jupiter), confirming that it is a planet. In fact, it is the farthest and oldest known planet.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0319c/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
M 4 Messier 4 NGC 6121
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Grouping > Cluster > Globular
Esahubble_opo0319c_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 16h 23m 35.4s
DEC = -26° 31’ 22.7”
Orientation
North is 1.0° CCW
Field of View
6.7 x 6.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Scorpius
Esahubble_opo0319c_1280
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ID
opo0319c
Subject Category
B.3.6.4.2  
Subject Name
M 4, Messier 4, NGC 6121
Credits
NOAO/AURA/NSF
Release Date
2003-07-10T20:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0319c/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Instrument
Color Assignment
Band
Bandpass
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
245.897341467, -26.5229641382
Reference Dimension
594.0, 594.0
Reference Pixel
297.0, 297.0
Scale
-0.000189367989873, 0.000189367989873
Rotation
1.0199999999999998
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
opo0319c
Metadata Date
2003-12-09T17:27:40+01:00
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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