GW Orionis (IMAGE)

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

GW Orionis

Caption

An image of GW Orionis, a triple star system with a mysterious gap in its surrounding dust rings. UNLV astronomers hypothesize the presence of a massive planet in the gap, which would be the first planet ever discovered to orbit three stars. The left image, provided by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, shows the disc’s ringed structure, with the innermost ring separated from the rest of the disc. The observations in the right image show the shadow of the innermost ring on the rest of the disc. UNLV astronomers used observations from ALMA to construct a comprehensive model of the star system.

Credit

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), ESO/Exeter/Kraus et al.

Usage Restrictions

No restrictions.

License

Public Domain

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