ALMA observes a ring around the bright star Fomalhaut
This view shows a new picture of the dust ring around the bright star Fomalhaut from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The underlying blue picture shows an earlier picture obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The new ALMA image has given astronomers a major breakthrough in understanding a nearby planetary system and provided valuable clues about how such systems form and evolve. Note that ALMA has so far only observed a part of the ring.
Credit:ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
Acknowledgement: A.C. Boley (University of Florida, Sagan Fellow), M.J. Payne, E.B. Ford, M. Shabran (University of Florida), S. Corder (North American ALMA Science Center, National Radio Astronomy Observatory), and W. Dent (ALMA, Chile), P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
About the Image
| Id: | eso1216a |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 12 April 2012, 15:00 |
| Related releases: | eso1216 |
| Size: | 2958 x 2013 px |
About the Object
| Name: | Fomalhaut |
| Type: | Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material |
| Distance: | 25 light years |
| Constellation: | Piscis Austrinus |
| Category: | Stars |
Coordinates
| Position (RA): | 22 57 39.04 |
| Position (Dec): | -29° 37' 19.83" |
Colours & filters
| Band | Telescope |
|---|---|
| Optical | Hubble Space Telescope ACS |
| Millimeter | Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array |