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News Release Archive:

News Release 130 of 885

May 24, 2010 02:00 PM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2010-17

Out of Whack Planetary System Offers Clues to a Disturbed Past

Technical facts about this news release:

About the Object

Object Name:	Upsilon Andromedae
Object Description:	Star with Planetary System
Position (J2000):	R.A. 01h 36m 47s.76 Dec. +41° 24' 18".9
Constellation:	Andromeda
Distance:	44 light-years (13.6 parsecs)

About the Data

Note:	The discovery was made by joint observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), and other ground-based telescopes. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is located at the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory. Spectroscopic observations of the Upsilon Andromedae system were taken with the HET's High Resolution Spectrograph from August 2004 through July 2008.
Data Description:	The Hubble data are from the HST proposals 9407, 9971, and 10103: G. Benedict and B. McArthur (University of Texas, Austin), E. Nelan (STScI), M. McGrath (NASA/MSFC), P. Butler (Carnegie Institution of Washington), G. Marcy (University of California, Berkeley), A. Hatzes (Tautenburg Observatory, Germany), B. Cochran (University of Texas, Austin), and G. Gatewood (University of Pittsburgh).
Instrument:	FGS
Exposure Date(s):	December 2001 - August 2006
Filters:	F5ND and F583W

About the Release

Credit:	NASA, ESA, and B. McArthur (The University of Texas at Austin, McDonald Observatory)
Release Date:	May 24, 2010