This is an artist's concept of the extrasolar planet HAT-P-7b. It is a "hot Jupiter" class planet orbiting a star that is much hotter than our Sun. Hubble Space Telescope's millionth science observation was trained on this planet to look for the presence of water vapor and to study the planet's atmospheric structure via spectroscopy. Planets with orbits inclined nearly edge-on to Earth can be observed passing in front of and behind their stars. This allows for the planetary atmospheres to be studied by Hubble's spectrometers. Hubble's unique capabilities allow astronomers to do follow-up observations of exoplanets to characterize the composition and structure of their atmospheres.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | HAT-P-7b |
| Object Description | Eclipsing extrasolar planet and host star |
| R.A. Position | 19h 28m 59s |
| Dec. Position | +47°58' 11" |
| Constellation | Cygnus |
| Distance | About 1,044 light-years or 320 parsecs |
| Dimensions | The planet HAT-P-7b is 1.4 times Jupiter's diameter |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST data are from proposal : D. Deming (University of Maryland), E. Agol (University of Washington), A.S. Burrows (Princeton University), D. Charbonneau (Harvard University), Mark Clampin (NASA/GSFC), J.-M. Desert (Harvard University), R. Gilliland (STScI), H. Knutson (California Institute of Technology), N. Madhusudhan (Princeton University), A Mandell (NASA/GSFC), S. Seager (MIT), and A. Showman (University of Arizona). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | July 4, 2011, Exposure Time: 1427 minutes |
| Filters | G141 (grism), F139M (water/methane line) |
| 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. |
