A new video was just uploaded on YouTube featuring distant exoplanets dancing around their star. This spectacle is only 7 seconds long, but it contains 12 years' worth of observations!
First Direct Observation
The first extrasolar planetary system to be directly observed was HR8799 in 2008. The renowned system is now the star of the recently uploaded video.
Jason Wang, an astronomer at Northwestern University, has put together a beautiful time-lapse film of the family of four planets, each more massive than Jupiter, orbiting their star using observations gathered over the last 12 years.
Wang noted that making the video was not an easy feat because it is often difficult to observe planets in orbit.
"For example, it isn't apparent that Jupiter or Mars orbit our sun because we live in the same system and don't have a top-down view. Astronomical events either happen too quickly or too slowly to capture in a movie," Wang said in a press release statement.
"But this video shows planets moving on a human time scale. I hope it enables people to enjoy something wondrous."
A small star known as HR8799 is located in the Pegasus constellation, 133.3 light-years from our planet. Even though it appears to be a great distance away, HR8799 is considered to be within the vicinity of our solar neighborhood.
HR8799 is approximately five times more bright and 1.5 times more massive than our sun. The system originated after the demise of the dinosaurs 30 million years ago.
HR8799 made history in November 2008 when it became the first system to have its planets directly photographed. The system immediately captivated Wang, and he has followed it since.
Each year, he and his colleagues applied for time to observe the system at Hawaii's Mauna Kea's W.M. Keck Observatory.
Read also: New Super-Jupiter Exoplanet Puzzles Astronomers; Planetary Formation Theories Can't Explain It
Making the Time-Lapse Video
Wang created his first time-lapse film of the system after seven years of monitoring. Now, Wang produced an updated video that depicts the entire period in a compressed 4.5-second time-lapse and is armed with 12 years' worth of imaging data.
Wang utilized a technique known as "adaptive optics" to create the video and remove visual blurring brought on by the Earth's atmosphere.
He also employed specialized equipment, known as a "coronagraph," and processing algorithms to reduce the glare from the system's main star. This explains why there is a black circle in the center of the video. The glare would be too strong without this to allow observers to view the planets whirling around it.
Lastly, Wang smoothed the motion of the planets and filled in data gaps using a type of video processing. The final image displays four wispy dots circling a star. The planets, which appear to be fireflies, are actually enormous gas giants. Wang said that they are like larger counterparts of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus.
Related Article: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Captures First Clear Evidence of Carbon Dioxide in an Exoplanet's Atmosphere
