An astrophysicist at Northwestern University analyzed 17 years of images of the exoplanet Beta Pictoris b, grouping them to publish a spectacular video about their journey. It’s only 10 seconds long, but they’re mind-blowing.
Jason Wang, who has studied all kinds of data on the exoplanet, indicated that six more years must pass before it completes its orbit around its star. “We are almost there. Patience is key.” he said in a statement.
The exoplanet Beta Pictoris b was discovered on November 18, 2008, using the Very Large Telescope atop Cerro Paranal in Chile. It stands out for having 12 times the mass of Jupiter, located about 63 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Pictor.
Beta Pictoris b is approximately 1.75 times more massive and 8.7 more luminous than the Sun.
“It’s extremely bright” explains Jason Wang. “That’s why it’s one of the first exoplanets to be discovered and imaged directly.”
Adds the scientist: “It is so big that It is on the border of a planet and a brown dwarf, They are more massive than ordinary planets.
Astrophysicist Wang worked together with a local high school student, Malachi Noel, using Artificial Intelligence-powered image processing techniques.
With this, uniformly analyzed archival image data the Gemini Planet Imager of the Gemini Observatory and the NACO and SPHERE instruments of the European Southern Observatory, in Chile.
After processing the data uniformly, with an algorithmic technique the spaces were filled to make a continuous video.
Finally, with a technology adaptive optical call the video was assembled, helping to correct the blurring caused by Earth’s atmosphere, further suppressing glare from the central star in the system.
The result: the 10-second video, summarizing 17 years of exoplanet travel. Incredible.