The longest yet time-lapse footage of an exoplanet has been assembled from real data to create a digital image that shows an exoplanet 12 times the mass of Jupiter orbiting a star in the Pictor constellation. The time-lapse condenses 17 years of data into 10 seconds.
What is even more remarkable in the creation is the contribution from a young person – a high school student contributed to the project through Northwestern’s REACH program. The Research Experiences in Astronomy at CIERA for High School Students is a highly interactive, 3-week program.
Constructed from real data, the digital footage shows Beta Pictoris b — a planet 12 times the mass of Jupiter — moving around its star in a tilted orbit. The time-lapse video condenses 17 years of footage (collected between the years 2003 and 2020) into just 10 seconds. Within those seconds, viewers can watch the planet make about 75 percent of one full orbit.
Commenting on the success, astrophysicist Jason Wang states: “We need another six years of data before we can see one whole orbit…We’re almost there. Patience is key.”
An expert in exoplanet imaging, Wang is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy in Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA).
Wang has also previously unveiled a 12-year time-lapse video of a family of four exoplanets orbiting their star.
With the new footage, Beta Pictoris b is an enormous planet, located about 63 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pictor. The distance between Beta Pictoris b and its star (Beta Pictoris) is about 10 times the distance between the Earth and the sun. Compared to our Sun, Beta Pictoris is 1.75 times as massive and 8.7 times more luminous. It also is very young — only 20 to 26 million years old.
Beta Pictoris located approximately 63 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Pictor.
When Beta Pictoris b was first imaged in 2003, its size and brightness made it easier to spot, compared to other exoplanets.
According to Wang: “It’s extremely bright. That’s why it’s one of the first exoplanets to ever be discovered and directly imaged. It’s so big that it’s at the boundary of a planet and a brown dwarf, which are more massive than planets.”
To support the time-lapse project Wang sought help from Malachi Noel, a student at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. Noel used AI-driven image-processing techniques to uniformly analyse archival imaging data from three instruments — one at the Gemini Observatory and two at the European Southern Observatory.
Wang then used an algorithmic technique termed motion interpolation to fill in gaps to create a continuous video. Wang also used technology called “adaptive optics” to correct image blurring caused by Earth’s atmosphere and specialized instrumentation to suppress the glare of the system’s central star. (This is why the video has a black circle surrounding a cartoon star icon in the centre.)
Wang hopes his exoplanet videos give viewers a glimpse into planetary motion and an admiration of the universe’s innerworkings.
