Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Soummer (STScI)

LEFT:

This is an image of the star HR 8799 taken by Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) in 1998. A mask within the camera (coronagraph) blocks most of the light from the star. In addition, software has been used to digitally subtract more starlight. Nevertheless, scattered light from HR 8799 dominates the image, obscuring the faint planets.

RIGHT:

Recent, sophisticated software processing of the NICMOS data removes most of the scattered starlight to reveal three planets orbiting HR 8799. Astronomers used this decade-old image to calculate the orbits of the planets. As a result, astronomers relied on NASA’s distant New Horizons spacecraft to observe the sky free from zodiacal light. The faint background they measured is the equivalent of seeing a neighbor’s refrigerator light from a mile away.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2021/news-2021-023

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://hubblesite.org/copyright/