ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

First, the tiny white dot is added for reference. the star's light had to be "subtracted" in order to make the planet visible. That messy process is why it looks like there's a squashed bug in the middle of the image.

The "halo" is a ring of dust, and slightly larger granules, of material left over from the formation of Fomalhaut and any planets. Fomalhaut is a younger star than the Sun, so this material is still around. In a few tens of millions of years, most of it will be either swept up into planets, or blown away into space, or it will drop into lower orbits by gravitational interaction with large ring prticles and get toasted by Fomalhaut itself. It was once a complete disk, but that material has coalesced into of Fomalhaut b -- and presumably other planets.

The Press release from the Space Telescope Science Institute is here:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/39/image/a/
Look at the annotated image and you can see that we've actually been able to see Fomalhaut b moving along its 872-year orbit... at a distance of 236,500,000,000,000 km. Impressive.

For more about the other exoplanets recently imaged, look here:
http://www.gemini.edu/node/11151

Marc Taylor
Coordinator, Andrus Planetarium
Hudson River Museum
511 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10701
914 963 4550 x223
Fax 963 8558
[log in to unmask]


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Informal Science Education Network
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Chuck Howarth
> Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 12:20 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Alien Planets

> 
> OK, for all you smart astronomers out there - I saw the spectacular  
> Hubble image in the paper today.  According to the legend on the  
> photo, the parent star is the tiny white dot in the center of the  
> image, while the planet — well, you'd never be able to spot the  
> planet unless someone pointed it out.  The dominant feature of the  
> photo is an enormous red halo surrounding the star in all  
> directions.  What exactly is that?
> 
> Chuck Howarth
> Gyroscope, Inc.
> 283 Fourth Street, Suite 201
> Oakland, CA  94607
> [log in to unmask]
> 510-986-0111
> 
> Check out our blog!
> http://museums-now.blogspot.com/

***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]