Hubble's Infrared Eyes Home in on Suspected Extrasolar Planet

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

These are Hubble Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) Camera 1 images of 2M1207's giant planetary companion candidate at three increasingly longer near-infrared wavelengths [left to right: 0.9, 1.1, and 1.6 microns]. The light from 2M1207 itself has been greatly reduced by subtracting a second image of the star taken with Hubble rolled to a different orientation in the sky. Imperfections in the "differential roll" subtraction technique give rise to optical artifacts at the location of 2M1207, which is centered in the red circle of 0.2 arc second radius. The giant planetary companion candidate is the white disk located outside and to the lower right of the red circle. 2M1207, a young brown dwarf of spectral type M8.5, is itself quite red — 11 times fainter at 0.9 microns than it is at 1.6 microns. The giant planetary companion candidate at 0.9 microns is significantly redder in comparison, 44 times fainter at 0.9 microns than it is at 1.6 microns where, at that shorter wavelength, it is also 720 times fainter than 2M1207.

Object Names: 2M1207, 2MASSWJ 1207334-393254

Image Type: Astronomical/Illustration

Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Schneider (Steward Observ., Univ. of Arizona), I. Song (Gemini Observ.), B. Zuckerman, E. Becklin (Univ. of California, Los Angeles), P. Lowrance (California Inst. of Technology), B. Macintosh (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), M. Bessell (Australian National Univ.), and C. Dumas and G. Chauvin (European Southern Observ.)

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