Technical facts about this news release: About the Object Object Name: HD 61005 Object Description: Star with Circumstellar Structure Position (J2000): R.A. 07h 35m 47s.46 Dec. -32° 12' 14".04 Constellation: Puppis Distance: 100 light-years or 31 parsecs About the Data Data Description: This image was created from data from the HST proposal 10527: D. Hines (Space Science Institute, New Mexico Office in Corrales, New Mexico). The science team comprises D. Hines (Space Science Institute, New Mexico Office in Corrales, New Mexico), G. Schneider (University of Arizona) , D. Hollenbach (NASA Ames), E. Mamajek (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), L. Hillenbrand (California Institute of Technology), S. Metchev (University of California, Los Angeles), M. Meyer (University of Arizona), J . Carpenter (California Institute of Technology), A. Moro-Martin (Princeton University), M. Silverstone (Eureka Scientific, Cary, NC), J. Serena Kim (University of Arizona), and T. Henning, J. Bouwman, and S. Wolf (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany). Instrument: NICMOS Exposure Date(s): November 20, 2005; June 18, 2006 Exposure Time: 1.3 hours Filters: F110W (J-band) About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Hines (Space Science Institute, Corrales, New Mexico), and G. Schneider (University of Arizona) Orientation: Circumstellar Disk HD 61005 [ http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2008/01/images/b/formats/compass_large_web.jpg ] What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. What superficially resembles a giant moth floating in space is giving astronomers new insight into the formation and evolution of planetary systems. This is not your typical flying insect. It has a wingspan of about 22 billion miles. The wing- like structure is actually a dust disk encircling the nearby, young star HD 61005, dubbed "The Moth." Its shape is produced by starlight scattering off dust. Dust disks around roughly 100-million-year-old stars like HD 61005 are typically flat structures where planets can form. But images taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of "The Moth" are showing that some disks sport surprising shapes. The Hubble image was taken with the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). The black disk in the center of the image is a coronagraphic hole in the NICMOS camera that blocks out most of the central star's light so that astronomers can see details in the surrounding dust disk. Read more: * The Full Story [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/01/full/ ] *News Release Number:*: STScI-2008-01b
