Fomalhaut System

This is a false-color composite image of the Fomalhaut System taken with the Hubble telescope's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) instrument in 2010 and 2012. The black circle at the center of the image blocks out the light from the bright star, allowing reflected light from the belt and planet to be photographed.

About the colours

This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the STIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. This image was originally black and white and recorded only overall brightness. These brightness values were translated into a range of reddish hues. Such color "maps" can be useful in helping to distinguish subtly varying brightness in an image. Red: STIS/CCD

About the data

This image was created from HST data from proposals 10390 , 10598 , 11818 , and 12576 ; PI: P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley).

The science team includes: P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley and SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif.), J. Graham (University of California, Berkeley and University of Toronto), M. Fitzgerald (UCLA), and M. Clampin (NASA/GSFC).