AB Aurigae Disk (Hubble View)
Depicts: AB Aurigae, IRAS 04525+3028
Copyright: C.A. Grady (National Optical Astronomy Observatories, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), B. Woodgate (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), F. Bruhweiler and A. Boggess (Catholic University of America), P. Plait and D. Lindler (ACC, Inc., Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Clampin (Space Telescope Science Institute), and NASA, P. Kalas (SpaceTelescope Science Institute)
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The Hubble telescope image on the right shows a windowpane-shaped occulting bar -- the dark bands running vertically through the middle of the image and horizontally across the upper part of it. The occulting bar covers the innermost part of the disk and star, about 7.1 billion miles (11.5 billion kilometers) or 1.4 times our solar system's diameter. The diagonal lines are the remnants of the diffraction spikes produced in Hubble telescope images of bright stars.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
