This color image of the star HR 4796 and its surrounding dust disk was taken on March 15, 1998 at the Keck II Observatory atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, using MIRLIN, JPL's mid-infrared camera. Images were taken at two different infrared wavelengths (12 and 21 micrometers) and are represented by bluish green and red in this picture. The star, which is similar to our Sun, appears white in this image. A much cooler disk of dust, a few times larger than our own solar system, appears red. A slight decrease in the brightness between the star and the outer parts of the disk implies that material in this region has condensed to form planets. The bright outer disk may represent material left over from this planet-building phase and could still be actively forming comets. The W.M. Keck Observatory is owned and operated by the California Association for Research in Astronomy, a joint venture between the University of California, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, and NASA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, a division of Caltech, manages the use of the W.M. Keck Observatory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. This image of HR 4796 is posted on the World Wide Web, at URL
http://www.jpl.nasa… #####
description
This color image of the star HR 4796 and its surrounding dust disk was taken on March 15, 1998 at the Keck II Observatory atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, using MIRLIN, JPL's mid-infrared camera. Images were taken at two different infrared wavelengths (12 and 21 micrometers) and are represented by bluish green and red in this picture. The star, which is similar to our Sun, appears white in this image. A much cooler disk of dust, a few times larger than our own solar system, appears red. A slight decrease in the brightness between the star and the outer parts of the disk implies that material in this region has condensed to form planets. The bright outer disk may represent material left over from this planet-building phase and could still be actively forming comets. The W.M. Keck Observatory is owned and operated by the California Association for Research in Astronomy, a joint venture between the University of California, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, and NASA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, a division of Caltech, manages the use of the W.M. Keck Observatory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. This image of HR 4796 is posted on the World Wide Web, at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/98/hr4796.html #####
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