Artist’s impression of debris around a white dwarf star

This illustration is an artist's impression of the thin, rocky debris disc discovered around the two Hyades white dwarfs. Rocky asteroids are thought to have been perturbed by planets within the system and diverted inwards towards the star, where they broke up, circled into a debris ring, and were then dragged onto the star itself.

Credit:

NASA, ESA, STScI, and G. Bacon (STScI)

About the Image

Id:heic1309a
Type:Artwork
Release date:9 May 2013, 16:00
Related releases:heic1309
Size:3600 x 2880 px

About the Object

Name:Hyades, WD0421+162, WD0431+126
Type:Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : White Dwarf
Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Open
Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Disk : Debris
Distance:150 light years
Category:Illustrations

Image Formats

r.titleLarge JPEG
2.1 MB
r.titleScreensize JPEG
113.6 KB

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