These near-infrared images, taken with the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, show the wing- shaped dust disk surrounding the young, nearby star HD 61005. Astronomers have dubbed the star system "The Moth" because the dust disk resembles the wings of the flying insect.
The Moth's wingspan extends about 22 billion miles from the star. The black disk in the center of the images represents the coronagraphic hole in the NICMOS camera that blocks most of the starlight so that astronomers can see details in the surrounding dust disk.
HD 61005 is about 100 million years old. Dust disks around stars of The Moth's age are typically flat structures where planets can form. These Hubble images show that some dust disks have some surprising shapes. HD 61005 appears to be plowing through a local patch of higher-density gas in the interstellar medium, causing material in the HD 61005's disk to be swept behind the star.
HD 61005 resides 100 light-years from Earth. NICMOS took these images in 2005 and 2006.
Credits
NASA, D. Hines (Space Science Institute, New Mexico Office in Corrales, New Mexico), and G. Schneider (University of Arizona)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | HD 61005, The Moth |
| Object Description | Star with Circumstellar Structure |
| R.A. Position | 07h 35m 47.45s |
| Dec. Position | -32° 12' 14.04" |
| Constellation | Puppis |
| Distance | 100 light-years or 31 parsecs |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | HST Proposal: D. Hines (Space Science Institute, New Mexico Office in Corrales, New Mexico). The science team comprises: D. Hines (Space Science Institute, New Mexico Office in Corrales, New Mexico), G. Schneider (University of Arizona) , D. Hollenbach (NASA Ames), E. Mamajek (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), L. Hillenbrand (California Institute of Technology), S. Metchev (University of California, Los Angeles), M. Meyer (University of Arizona), J . Carpenter (California Institute of Technology), A. Moro-Martin (Princeton University), M. Silverstone (Eureka Scientific, Cary, NC), J. Serena Kim (University of Arizona), and T. Henning, J. Bouwman, and S. Wolf (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany). |
| Instrument | HST>NICMOS |
| Exposure Dates | November 20, 2005; June 18, 2006, Exposure Time: 1.3 hours |
| Filters | F110W (J-band) |
| About The Image | |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
