heic0821b

August 20, 2011
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This illustration shows the newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting its sun, Fomalhaut. This structure is a Saturn-like ring that astronomers say may encircle the planet. Fomalhaut also is surrounded by a ring of material. The edge of this vast disk is shown in the background as the curving cloud-like feature that appears to intersect the 200-million year-old star. Fomalhaut b lies three billion kilometres inside the disk’s inner edge. The planet completes an orbit around Fomalhaut every 872 years.

author
I am a Norwegian / British astronomer who working on the scientific preparation of the PLATO exoplanet mission. The PLATO space mission is designed to search for small, rocky exoplanets in the habitable zones of stars like the Sun.

I also work on a variety of astrophysical topics mainly focused on far-UV observations aimed at understanding the the formation environments of young planets. I am also very interested in work related to exoplanet atmospheres, radial velocity followup and exocomets.

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