The faint red glow of a rogue planet

This image shows a small area of the sky in the direction of the region occupied by Upper Scorpius and Ophiucus. It zooms in on a recently discovered rogue planet, meaning a planet that does not orbit a star but instead roams freely on its own. The rogue planet is the tiny, bright red dot at the very centre of the image.

The image was created by combining data from the OmegaCam instrument on VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and from the VIRCAM instrument on the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), both located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Observations with these and other instruments helped the scientists tell the planets apart from stars, brown dwarfs and other objects in this region of the sky.

Lurking far away from any star illuminating them, rogue planets would normally be impossible to image, but shortly after formation they emit a faint glow that can be detected by sensitive cameras on powerful telescopes.

Oikeudet:

ESO/Miret-Roig et al.

Kuvasta

Tunnistus:eso2120b
Tyyppi:Havainto
Julkaisupäivä:22. joulukuuta 2021 17:00
Vastaavat julkaisut:eso2120
Koko:2048 x 2048 px

Kohteesta

Nimi:Scorpius Constellation
Tyyppi:Milky Way : Planet
Constellation:Scorpius
Kategoria:Exoplanets

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Koordinaatit

Position (RA):16 8 13.01
Position (Dec):-23° 4' 31.91"
Field of view:7.27 x 7.27 arcminutes
Suuntaus:Pohjoinen on 0.9° oikea pystysuuntaan nähden

Värit ja suotimet

KaistaAallonpituusTeleskooppi
Optinen
I
770 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM
Infrapuna
J
1.252 μmVisible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy
VIRCAM
Infrapuna
Ks
2.147 μmVisible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy
VIRCAM