Webb Detects Giant Collision in Beta Pictoris System

Jun 12, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have spotted a collision of giant asteroids around Beta Pictoris, the second brightest star in the constellation of Pictor.



Chen et al. show that Beta Pictoris has a dynamic circumstellar environment and that periods of enhanced collisions can create large dust clouds that sweep through the planetary system, increasing the dust accretion onto the giant planets Beta Pictoris b and c. Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa / Johns Hopkins University / Lynette Cook / NASA.

Beta Pictoris (β Pictoris) is an A5-type star located about 63 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Pictor.

The star has a mass of about 1.8 times the Sun and an age of only 20 million years.

It hosts a circumstellar disk of gas and dust; a large number of comet-like bodies; and two giant planets: Beta Pictoris b and c.

Beta Pictoris b is a gas giant approximately 9 to 13 times the mass of Jupiter. It orbits the parent star once every 22 years at a distance of 9.8 AU (astronomical units).

Beta Pictoris c has a mass of 8.2 times that of Jupiter and is much closer to its star. It orbits at 2.7 AU and has an orbital period of roughly 1,200 days.

More:
https://www.sci.news/astronomy/webb-giant-collision-beta-pictoris-system-13011.html