Around Beta Pictoris

Eso_eso1024d_1024

eso_eso1024d March 6th, 2014

Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2

Beta Pictoris is located about 60 light-years away towards the constellation of Pictor (the Painter's Easel) and is one of the best-known examples of a star surrounded by a dusty debris disc. Earlier observations showed a warp of the disc, a secondary inclined disc and comets falling onto the star, all indirect, but tell-tale signs that strongly suggested the presence of a massive planet. Observations done with the NACO instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2003, 2008 and 2009, have proven the presence of a planet around Beta Pictoris. It is located at a distance between 8 and 15 times the Earth-Sun separation — or Astronomical Units — which is about the distance Saturn is from the Sun. The planet has a mass of about nine Jupiter masses and the right mass and location to explain the observed warp in the inner parts of the disc. This image, based on data from the Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows a region of approximately 1.7 x 2.3 degrees around Beta Pictoris.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1024d/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Beta Pictoris
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Circumstellar Material > Disk > Debris
Eso_eso1024d_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 47m 17.1s
DEC = -51° 3’ 59.0”
Orientation
North is 2.7° CW
Field of View
1.7 x 2.3 degrees
Constellation
Pictor

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red DSS2 (None) Optical (R) 658.0 nm
Blue DSS2 (None) Optical (B) 445.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Blue
Eso_eso1024d_1280
×
ID
eso1024d
Subject Category
B.3.7.2.3  
Subject Name
Beta Pictoris
Credits
ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2
Release Date
2014-03-06T20:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1024d/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Approximate distance in light years from ESO.
Facility
Digitized Sky Survey 2, Digitized Sky Survey 2
Instrument
None, None
Color Assignment
Red, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, B
Central Wavelength
658, 445
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
86.821365, -51.066397
Reference Dimension
1280.0, 1695.0
Reference Pixel
640.964823199, 847.727570814
Scale
-0.00135997671, 0.00135997671
Rotation
-2.71877847255
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
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
eso1024d
Metadata Date
2010-03-01T14:16:33+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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