Astronomy Picture of the Day: The Four Suns of HD 98800


	Astronomy Picture of the Day: The Four Suns of HD 98800

travislaborde

7-30-2007 8:14 AM

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tags:

images

travislaborde says:

Wow, what a beautiful sight. I hope one of the things we can do once we're in Heaven is fly around and see all this stuff

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7-30-2007 9:00 AM

ladalooop88845

that would be pretty cool if we had 4 suns...hot but cool

7-30-2007 3:19 PM

skwirlinator

What is that Dual-Binary?

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<B> Explanation: </B>
How would it look to have four suns in the sky?
Planets of the 
<A href="http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/happenings/20070724/">HD 98800 system</A>, 
if they exist, would experience such a view.  
HD 98800 is a  
<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_star">multiple star system</A> 
about 150 light years from Earth -- right in our section of the 
<A href="http://cassfos02.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/MW.html">Milky Way Galaxy</A>.  
For years it has been known that 
<A href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.0380">HD 98800</A> consists of two pairs of 
<A href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991002.html">double stars</A>, 
with one pair surrounded by a disk of dust.   
The star pairs are located about 50 
<A href="http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/glossary/au.html">AU</A> 
from each other -- in comparison just outside the orbit of 
<A href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060903.html">Pluto</A>.  
Recent data from the Earth-orbiting 
<A href="http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/about/index.shtml">Spitzer Space Telescope</A> 
in <A href="http://science.hq.nasa.gov/kids/imagers/ems/infrared.html">infrared</A> light, 
however, indicate that the dust disk has gaps that appear consistent with being 
cleared by planets orbiting in the disk.  
If so, one planet appears to be orbiting at a distance similar to Mars of 
<A href="http://www.nineplanets.org/overview.html">our own Solar System</A>.  
Pictured 
<A href="http://gallery.spitzer.caltech.edu/Imagegallery/image.php?image_name=sig07-013">above</A> is an artist's drawing of what how the 
<A href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/journal/issues/ApJ/v498n1/37029/sc0.html">HD 98800 system</A> might appear to a nearby observer.
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