Image credit: Mouillet, D., Larwood, J.D., Papaloizou, J.C.B., Lagrange A.M., 1997, A planet on an inclined orbit as an explanation of the warp in the beta Pictoris disc, MNRAS, vol. 292, pg. 896-904.



beta Pictoris at 1.2 microns (J-band)

HD 39060    HR 2020    GJ 219.0    HIP 27321
RA (2000) = 05 47 17.0877       Dec (2000) = -51 03 59.451
SpT = A5V    V = 3.86 mag    d = 19.3 pc
Proper motion (mas/yr) = +4.65 +81.96

This image of beta Pic shows the dust disk in scattered light. Even though this is a ground-based image, the resolution achieved is similar to that of the Hubble Space Telescope. European astronomers used an adaptive optics system in Chile called ADONIS to obtain this image.

The main observational result is confirmation of the HST discovery that the disk midplane is warped at approximately 50 AU from the star. The cause of the warp is supported by dynamical simulations performed by John Larwood and John Papaloizou at Queen Mary and Westfield College in London.  They find that the observed warp could result from a planet which does not orbit in exactly the same plane as the rest of the disk material.

Copyright, please do not reproduce without permission from the authors.