They capture on video 4 planets orbiting a star 133 light years from Earth

Although the movement of the Earth and the neighboring planets around the Sun allows us to know how the solar system works, we cannot see this process directly. Now, a recent video gives us the opportunity to observe a planetary system in action.

Is about HR8799a system of four exoplanets more massive than Jupiter, which orbit a star larger and more luminous than the Sun. A cosmic neighborhood located 133 light years from Earth.

A team of astronomers led by Jason Wang, assistant professor at Northwestern University (USA), managed to create the video based on a sequence of images taken for 12 years (2009-2021) from the WM Keck Observatory (Hawaii).

For his observations, Wang used adaptive optics to correct for image blur caused by Earth’s atmosphere. Also, he used a coronagraph, an instrument that allows to block the glow of a star, so that it allows to see the planets around it. That is why it is appreciated a black circle in the center of the image.

Decades to go around your star

In the 12 years of observations—compiled in seven seconds of video—none of the planets completes an orbit around the star, and that is because they are located really far from it, between 15 AU and 80 AU.

One AU is equal to the distance between the Earth and the Sun (150 million kilometers).

For example, Neptune, the outermost planet in the solar system, is located 30 AU from the Sun and completes one revolution in 165 years; instead, our planet takes a year.

a system of giants

The star HR8799 is 1.5 times more massive and approximately five times more luminous than the Sun.

Meanwhile, their planets have seven to ten times the mass of Jupiter and they are at least 20% larger. Due to their dimensions, it is estimated that they are all gaseous worlds.

Other studies determined that this system has two asteroid belts, just like our cosmic neighborhood.

Source-larepublica.pe