Fomalhaut (Alpha PsA) 
This image shows Fomalhaut, the star around which a newly discovered planet orbits.
Fomalhaut is much hotter than our Sun, 15 times as bright, and lies 25 light-years from Earth in the constellation Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish).
Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the nearly 1980s by the US-UK-Dutck Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS).
Fomalhaut is blazing through hydrogen at such a furious rate that it will burn out in only one billion years, 10% the lifespan of our star. | The color image seen here is based on data coming from photographic plates taken between 1977 and 1991 by the Anglo-Australian Observatory's 48-inches (1.2 meters) UK Schmidt Telescope as part of a sky survey. Photographic plates from this survey have been digitized by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Credit: Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), Digitized Sky Survey. The image shows an area of sky large 2.7° × 2.9° with a resolution of about 1 arcsec per pixel (for comparison, the full-Moon has a diameter of about 0.5°). Color composite, copyright: Davide De Martin. Available for Museum, Planetariums, Publishers and Authors in very high-resolution (98 megapixels). Please, e-mail me with your request. |
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