Located 63.4 light years from the sun, Beta Pictoris is a relatively young star at about 12 million years old. The star is 75% more massive than the Sun. 25 years ago Beta Pictoris was the first star to be photographed with a “circumstellar disk”.
Have you ever imagined a planet inside the rings of a star?? Well, I never have! It's been recorded that there's a Giant exo-planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris inside it's rings. “With an orbital distance of 8 to 15 astronomical units (AU), β Pictoris b is the closest exoplanet to its star that has ever been imaged.” The planet is almost just as close to it’s host star as Saturn is to the sun. And that’s pretty close! β Pictoris b allows astronomers to study planet formation processes.
I just think this article is quite interesting because I never knew stars had disks let alone planets IN them! This article could be important because maybe the astronomers will find new information on the process of planet formation.
That's crazy!! How does a star even have rings? What are they made out of? How do they get formed? This is really super cool, and honestly it shows how little we know about the universe!
ReplyDeleteHow much do we know about this exo-planet? Is there more information on the planet or how it's orbit works within the rings? Or is this so recent, we just don't know that yet? I love how many questions this article brings up.
ReplyDeleteI'm really confused about what this article is really about... So the star has rings that hold exoplanets? What are the rings made of? I would like to possibly get more information on this...
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand whether the star is orbiting the exoplanet or what the rings around the star are. Really cool article but a little more information would be great to help clarify.
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