Share

News Release Archive:

News Release 86 of 840

May 20, 2010 09:00 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2010-15

Hubble Finds Star Eating a Planet

Technical facts about this news release:

About the Object

Object Name:	WASP-12b
Object Description:	Planet around a nearby yellow dwarf star
Position (J2000):	R.A. 06h 30m 32s.78 Dec. +29° 40' 20".3
Constellation:	Auriga
Distance:	600 light-years (184 parsecs)

About the Data

Data Description:	The data are from HST proposal 11651: C. Haswell (The Open University), P. Wheatley (University of Warwick), L. Hebb and A. Cameron (University of St. Andrews), C. Froning (University of Colorado, Boulder), A. Carter (The Open University), B. Loeillet (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille), C. Helling (University of St. Andrews), and L. Fossati (The Open University).
Instrument:	COS
Exposure Date(s):	Sept. 24-25, 2009
Exposure Time:	Approx. 14,000 seconds total (approx. 4 hours)
Filters/Gratings:	NCM1; G285M

About the Release

Credit:	NASA, ESA, and C. Haswell (The Open University, Great Britain)
Release Date:	May 20, 2010