A Giant Planet for Beta Pic
A mere 50 light-years away, young star
Beta
Pictoris
became one of the most important stars in the sky
in the early 1980s.
Satellite and ground-based telescopic observations revealed
the presence of a surrounding outer, dusty,
debris disk and an inner
clear zone about the size of our solar system -- strong evidence for
the formation of planets.
Infrared observations
from European Southern Observatory telescopes
subsequently detected a source
in the clear zone, now confirmed as a
giant planet
orbiting Beta Pic.
The confirmation comes
as the planet is detected at two different
positions in its orbit.
Designated
Beta Pictoris b,
the giant planet must have formed rapidly
as Beta Pic itself is only 8 to 20 million years old.
With an orbital period estimated between 17 and 44 years,
Beta Pictoris b could lie near the orbit of Saturn if found in
our solar system,
making it the closest planet to its parent star
directly imaged ... so far.
