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News Release 11-225
Spiral Arms Hint at the Presence of Planets
High resolution image of a young star with a circumstellar disks verifies predictions
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Two spiral arms emerge from the gas-rich disk around SAO 206462, a young star in the constellation Lupus. This image, acquired by the Subaru Telescope and its HiCIAO instrument, is the first to show spiral arms in a circumstellar disk. The disk itself is some 14 billion miles across, or about twice the size of Pluto's orbit in our own solar system.
Credit: NAOJ/Subaru
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (3 MB)
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