MXPlank News Letter - 2021-11-14

Hubble and VLT images of the disc around AU Microscopii

Using images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have discovered fast-moving wave-like features in the dusty disc around the nearby star AU Microscopii. These odd structures are unlike anything ever observed, or even predicted, before now. The top row shows a Hubble image of the AU Mic disc from 2010, the middle row Hubble from 2011 and the bottom row is an image taken with the SPHERE instrument, mounted on the Very Large Telescope, from 2014. The black central circles show where the brilliant light of the central star has been blocked off to reveal the much fainter disc, and the position of the star is indicated schematically.

Credit:
NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Beta Pictoris Disk Hides Giant Elliptical Ring System

The planetary dust disk around the star Beta Pictoris is dynamically 'ringing like a bell, ' according to astronomers investigating NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images. The 'clapper' is the gravitational wallop of a star that passed near Beta Pictoris some 100, 000 years ago.

Credit:
NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Exoplanet K2-18B

This image shows the planet K2-18B, it's host star and an accompanying planet in this system. K2-18B is now the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life.

UCL researchers used archive data from 2016 and 2017 captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and developed open-source algorithms to analyse the starlight filtered through K2-18b's atmosphere. The results revealed the molecular signature of water vapour, also indicating the presence of hydrogen and helium in the planet's atmosphere.

Credit:
ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

Identifying Planets

This graphic illustrates how a star can magnify and brighten the light of a background star when it passes in front of the distant star. If the foreground star has planets, then the planets may also magnify the light of the background star, but for a much shorter period of time than their host star. Astronomers use this method, called gravitational microlensing, to identify planets.

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Credit:
NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)