Using data over the previous 12 years, Northwestern University astronomer Jason Wang generated a breathtaking timelapse showing a number of exoplanets circling a distant star. The four exoplanets orbiting the HR8799, a star 133.3 light-years distant from Earth, were shown in the 4.5-second clip.
HR8799 was the first extrasolar planetary system to be directly observed in 2008. The well-known system now has its own video to let other people witness them perform their heavenly dance, showcasing the power of modern skywatching technology.
HR8799: First Extrasolar Planetary Directly Observed
A new YouTube video shows one of the most incredible things ever seen in planetary science. Four light dots move in half-concentric circles around a black disk in the middle of the movie. You are actually viewing a planetary system.
Science Alert reports that the four exoplanets are moving in partial concentric circles around a dark disk at their star. The half circles represent their orbital movements, collected from 12 years of monitoring.
HR8799 is the star, and its exoplanets formed the first system and not 2M1207b, which is the first exoplanet found in 2004, that scientists have ever observed directly.
Since then, Wang has been keeping a close eye on it. He's turned his findings into a time-lapse video, not for any scientific reason, but just because it's amazing.
He explained in a press release that it is typically impossible to observe planets in orbit, like in the Solar System where it is hard to get a top-down view. But the short clip depicts the HR8799 planetary system moving on a human time scale that will hopefully allow people to experience its wonder.
Exoplanets Bigger Than Jupiter
Wang utilized "adaptive optics" technology to fix visual blurring produced by Earth's atmosphere when creating the video, Phys.org reported. He also employed specialized instrumentation known as a "coronagraph" and processing algorithms to reduce the glare from the system's central star.
Then he used video processing to patch in data gaps and smooth out the motion of the planets. Otherwise, the planets would appear to hop about rather than revolve through space smoothly.
The finished image depicts four weak dots traveling around a central star, which appear to be simple fireflies but are actually huge gas giants. Wang likens them to "exaggerated copies" of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus.
Each planet seen in the film is enormous, with masses far greater than Jupiter. That implies their orbits take an eternity to complete. They estimated that it takes about 45 Earth years for the planet nearest to its host star to complete a rotation and around 500 Earth years for the outermost planet.
Moreover, Futurism reports that the host star HR8799 is found to be younger than the Sun at only 30 million years old. But it is 1.5 times more massive and five times brighter. It has the kind of luminosity that makes it more difficult to spot dimmer planets.
Wang and his colleagues observed the star system every year using the W. M. Keck Observatory and a technique known as "coronagraph" that allows the observatory to ignore the light of the star, hence producing the black circle. After 12 years, Wang put together the stunning timelapse.
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