Software-Processed NICMOS Image of HR 8799 Planetary System

Recent, sophisticated software processing of the NICMOS data removes most of the scattered starlight to reveal three planets orbiting HR 8799. Astronomers used this decade-old image to calculate the orbits of the planets.

About the colours

This image was originally black and white and recorded only overall brightness. These brightness values were translated into a range of arbitrary colors. Such color "maps" can be useful in helping to distinguish subtly varying brightness in an image.

About the data

The original NICMOS data were from the HST proposal 7226 : E. Becklin (University of California, Los Angeles) et al.

The science team comprises: R. Soummer, B. Hagan, and A. Rajan (STScI), L. Pueyo and A. Thormann (JHU), and C. Marois (Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, Victoria).