The Dusty Disk of Beta Pic
Credit & Copyright: C. Burrows and J. Krist (STScI),
WFPC2 IDT Team,
NASA,
ESA
Explanation:
This dusty disk,
viewed edge on surrounding
Beta Pictoris,
a star only 50 lightyears distant,
may signal the presence of an
infant solar system.
Beta Pictoris
is a young Sun-like star just completing
its formative stages.
About 10 years ago it made the news when astronomers detected
a disk around the star because
planets
are expected to form in such
circumstellar disks.
Did planets form around
Beta Pic?
The above recent
Hubble Space Telescope image
offers supporting evidence that they did.
In this false color image,
the overwhelming light from the star itself is masked out
and features of the inner disk are revealed. The inner part
(white area) appears to be slightly warped with respect to the line
centered on the axis of the outer parts of the disk. This warp could
be caused by a large planet orbiting within the inner clear zone,
too faint to be seen directly against the stellar glare.
If so, this is an indication that
planetary systems are
common in our galaxy.
Is anybody out there?
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
