(ORDO NEWS) — In 2008, HR8799 became the first planetary system after the Sun that astronomers could observe directly.
It is located 129 light years from us. Now, this exoplanet system has been “captured on video” for the first time.
Astrophysicist Jason Wang of Northwestern University in the United States compiled a time-lapse video from snapshots.
It shows a “family” of four planets, each of which is more massive than Jupiter and orbits a star in the center.
To do this, the researcher had to combine observations collected over the past 12 years.
The central star of this system is hidden from the eyes of observers, since the brightness of its light would outshine the light reflected from the planets.
The resulting video is only 4.5 seconds long. But it gives viewers a whole new perspective on the movement of the planets.
The planet closest to the star takes about 45 Earth years to complete one revolution around its sun. And the most distant planet goes the same way in almost 500 years.
“It is usually difficult to see planets [in motion] in orbit,” Wang explains.
“For example, it is not obvious that Jupiter or Mars revolve around the Sun, because we live in the same system with them and do not see all this from the side.
Astronomical events happen either too fast or too slow to be captured on video.”
But the scientist was able to show this movement of the planets on the scale of human time.
The author hopes that this will allow people who are far from astrophysics to enjoy the fruits of scientific work.
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