This artist's illustration shows a gas giant planet circling a pair of red dwarf stars.
The Saturn-mass planet orbits roughly 300 million miles from the stellar duo. The two red dwarf stars are a mere 7 million miles apart.
The illustration is based on Hubble Space Telescope observations that helped astronomers confirm the existence of a planet orbiting two stars in the system OGLE-2007-BLG-349, located 8,000 light-years away.
The system is too far away for Hubble to photograph the planet. Instead, its presence is inferred from gravitational microlensing. This phenomenon occurs when the gravity of a foreground star bends and amplifies the light of a background star that momentarily aligns with it. The particular character of the light magnification can reveal clues to the nature of the foreground star and any associated planets. The Hubble observations represent the first time such a three-body system has been confirmed using the gravitational microlensing technique.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | OGLE-2007-BLG-349, OGLE-2007-BLG-349L(AB)c |
| Object Description | Circumbinary Gravitational Microlensing Planet, Extrasolar Planet |
| R.A. Position | 18h 05m 24.76s |
| Dec. Position | -26° 25' 17.88" |
| Distance | 8,000 light-years |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Data were provided through HST proposal : A. Gould (Ohio State Univ.), D. Bennett (NASA GSFC, Univ. of Notre Dame), S. Dong (Ohio State Univ.), B. Gaudi (Harvard Univ.), R. Street (Las Cumbres Observ. Global Telescope Network), A. Udalski (Warsaw Univ.), and P. Yock (Univ. of Auckland). Principal Astronomer: D. Bennett (GSFC) Science team: D. Bennett (NASA GSFC; Univ. of Notre Dame; MOA Collaboration; and PLANET Collaboration), S. Rhie (Univ. of Notre Dame), A. Udalski (Warsaw Univ. Observ. and OGLE Collaboration), A. Gould (Ohio State Univ.; Max-Planck Inst. for Astronomy; Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute; and FUN Collaboration), Y. Tsapras (Zentrum für Astronomie, Heidelberg; Las Cumbres Observ. Global Telescope Network; and Robonet Collaboration), D. Kubas (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, and PLANET Collaboration), L. Bond (Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, and MOA Collaboration), J. Greenhill (Univ. of Tasmania, and PLANET Collaboration), A. Cassan (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, and PLANET Collaboration), N. Rattenbury (Univ. of Auckland, and MOA Collaboration), T. Boyajian (Nagoya Univ.), J. Luhn (Yale Univ.), M. Penny (Ohio State Univ.), F. Abe (Nagoya Univ.), A. Bhattacharya (Univ. of Notre Dame), C. Botzler, M. Donachie, and M. Freeman (Univ. of Auckland), A. Fukui (NAOJ), Y. Hirao (Osaka Univ.), Y. Itow (Nagoya Univ.), N. Koshimoto (Osaka Univ.), M. Li (Univ. of Auckland), C. Ling (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris), K. Masuda, Y. Matsubara, and Y. Muraki (Nagoya Univ.), M. Nagakane (Osaka Univ.), K. Ohnishi (Nagano National College of Technology), H. Oyokawa (Nagoya Univ.), Y. Perrott (Univ. of Auckland), T. Saito (Tokyo Metropolitan College of Aeronautics), A. Sharan (Univ. of Auckland), D. Sullivan (Victoria Univ.), T. Sumi (Osaka Univ.), D. Suzuki (NASA GSFC, and Univ. of Notre Dame), P. Tristram (Mt. John Univ. Observ.), A. Yonehara (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.), P. Yock (Univ. of Auckland), M. Szymanski, I. Soszynski, K. Ulaczyk, and L. Wyrzykowski (Warsaw Univ. Observ.), W. Allen (Vintage Lane Observ.), D. DePoy (Texas A&M Univ.), A. Gal-Yam (Weizmann Inst. of Science), B. Gaudi (Ohio State Univ.), I. Monard (Bronberg and Kleinkaroo Observ.), E. Ofek (Weizmann Inst. of Science), R. Pogge (Ohio State Univ.), R. Street (Las Cumbres Observ. Global Telescope Network), D. Bramich (Qatar Environment and Energy Research Inst.), M. Dominik and K. Horne (SUPA), C. Snodgrass (Open Univ.), I. Steele (Liverpool John Moores Univ.), M. Albrow (Univ. of Canterbury), E. Bachelet (Las Cumbres Observ. Global Telescope), V. Batista and J.-P. Beaulieu (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris), S. Brilliant (ESO Vitacura), J. Caldwell (McDonald Observ.), A. Cole (Univ. of Tasmania), C. Coutures (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris), S. Dieters (Univ. of Tasmania), D. Dominis Prester (Univ. of Rieka), J. Donatowicz (Technical Univ. of Vienna), P. Fouqué (CFHT Corp., and IRAP/CNRS), M. Hundertmark (SUPA and Niels Bohr Inst.), U. Jørgensen (Niels Bohr Inst.), N. Kains (STScI), S. Kane (San Francisco State Univ.), J.-B. Marquette (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris), J. Menzies (South African Astronomical Observ.), K. Pollard (Univ. of Canterbury), C. Ranc (Las Cumbres Observ. Global Telescope Network), K. Sahu (STScI), J. Wambsganss (Zentrum für Astronomie der Univ. Heidelberg), A. Williams (Perth Observ., and International Center for Radio Astronomy Research), and M. Zub (Zentrum für Astronomie der Univ. Heidelberg). |
| Instrument | HST>WFCP2 |
| Exposure Dates | Oct. 8, 2007, and May 4, 2008; Exposure Time: 1,600 seconds (total) |
| Filters | F814W and F555W |
| 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. |
