Gap in stellar dust disk may be swept out by planet

A striking NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared picture of a disk around the star HD 141569, located about 320 light-years away in the constellation Libra. Hubble shows that the 75 billion-mile wide disk seems to come in two parts: a dark band separates a bright inner region from a fainter outer region. The structure superficially looks much like the largest gap in Saturn's rings - but on a vastly larger scale.

Credit:

Alycia Weinberger, Eric Becklin (UCLA), Glenn Schneider (University of Arizona) and NASA/ESA

About the Image

NASA press release
Id:opo9903b
Type:Observation
Release date:8 January 1999, 06:00
Size:240 x 208 px

About the Object

Name:HD 141569, IRAS 15473-0346
Type:Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : White Dwarf
Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Planetary System
Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Disk
Distance:300 light years
Category:Exoplanets

Image Formats

r.titleLarge JPEG
26.0 KB
r.titleScreensize JPEG
127.7 KB

Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Infrared
Near-IR
1.1 μm Hubble Space Telescope
NICMOS

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