Explanation:
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.
Now, infrared
observations
from European Southern Observatory telescopes
incorporated in this composite
offer a detection of a source in the clear zone
that is most likely a
giant planet orbiting Beta Pic.
Designated Beta Pictoris b, the new source is
more than 1,000 times fainter than the direct starlight that has been
carefully subtracted
from the image data.
It is aligned with the disk at a projected distance that would place
it near the orbit of Saturn if found in our solar system.
Confirmation
that the new source is a planet will come if future
observations can demonstrate that the source moves in an orbit around
the star.
When confirmed, it will be the closest planet to its parent star
directly imaged ...
so far.
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