Jump to content

File:Hubble captures blobs of material sweeping through stellar disc AU Microscopii.tif

Page contents not supported in other languages.
This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Original file (2,160 × 1,199 pixels, file size: 1.58 MB, MIME type: image/tiff)

Summary

Description
English: These two images, both taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, are taken six years apart. They show fast-moving blobs of material sweeping outwardly through a debris disc around the young, nearby red dwarf star AU Microscopii (AU Mic). Red dwarfs are the most abundant and longest-lived stars in our Milky Way. AU Mic, however, is only about 23 million years old, making it a very young star.

The top image was taken in 2011; the bottom in 2017. Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) took the images in visible light. This comparison of the two images shows the six-year movement of one of the known blobs (marked by an arrow). Researchers estimate that the blob, which is zipping along at nearly 24 000 kilometres an hour, traveled more than 1300 million kilometres between 2011 and 2017. That is about the distance from Earth to Saturn. Astronomers do not know how the blobs are launched through the system.

Eventually, the blob highlighted in the image will sweep through the disc, escape the star's gravitational grip, and race out into space. Astronomers expect the string of blobs to clear out the disc within 1.5 million years. Their estimated ejection speeds are between 14 000 kilometres per hour and 43 000 kilometres per hour, fast enough to escape the star's gravitational clutches. They currently range in distance from roughly 1500 million kilometres to more than 8800 million kilometres from the star.

The disc, seen edge-on, is illuminated by scattered light from the star. The glare of the star, located at the centre of the disc, has been blocked out by the STIS coronagraph so that astronomers can see more structure in the disc. The bright dot above the left side of the disc in the 2017 image is a background star.

The system resides 32 light-years away in the southern constellation Microscopium.
Date
Source https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1902a/
Author NASA, ESA, J. Wisniewski (University of Oklahoma), C. Grady (Eureka Scientific), and G. Schneider (Steward Observatory)

Licensing

w:en:Creative Commons
attribution
attribution
 ESA/Hubble images, videos and web texts are released by the ESA under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided they are clearly and visibly credited. Detailed conditions are below; see the ESA copyright statement for full information. For images created by NASA or on the hubblesite.org website, or for ESA/Hubble images on the esahubble.org site before 2009, use the {{PD-Hubble}} tag.
Conditions:
  • The full image or footage credit must be presented in a clear and readable manner to all users, with the wording unaltered (for example: "ESA/Hubble"). Web texts should be credited to ESA/Hubble (except when used by media). The credit should not be hidden or disassociated from the image footage. Links should be active if the credit is online. See the usage rights Q&A section on the ESA copyright page for guidance.
  • ESA/Hubble materials may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by ESA/Hubble or any ESA/Hubble employee of a commercial product or service.
  • ESA/Hubble requests a copy of the product sent to them to be indexed in their archive.
  • If an image shows an identifiable person, using that image for commercial purposes may infringe that person's right of privacy, and separate permission should be obtained from the individual.
  • If images or visuals are changed significantly from the original work (apart from resizing, cropping), we suggest that the changes are mentioned after the credit line. For example "Original image by ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser), warping and recolouring by NN".

Notes:

  • Note that this general permission does not extend to the use of ESA/Hubble's logo, which shall remain protected and may not be used or reproduced without prior and individual written consent of ESA/Hubble.
  • Also note that music, scientific papers and code on the esahubble.org site are not released under this license and can not be used for non-ESA/Hubble products.
  • By reproducing ESA/Hubble material, in part or in full, the user acknowledges the terms on which such use is permitted.
w:en:Creative Commons
attribution
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Attribution: ESA/Hubble
You are free:
  • to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

inception

9 January 2019

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current13:15, 10 January 2019Thumbnail for version as of 13:15, 10 January 20192,160 × 1,199 (1.58 MB)JmencisomUser created page with UploadWizard

The following page uses this file:

Global file usage

The following other wikis use this file:

Metadata

This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.

If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hubble_captures_blobs_of_material_sweeping_through_stellar_disc_AU_Microscopii.tif"