Beta Pictoris planet makes waves
Simulations explain features in disk around young star
A giant planet is making a splash in the belt of debris orbiting the young star Beta Pictoris. Spiral waves driven by the planet whip around the dusty disk, researchers report online June 24 at arXiv.org.
Like a pebble dropped into water, the planet sends out ripples through the dust and rock surrounding Beta Pictoris each time the world plunges through the disk. The repeated disk-crossings generate spiral waves in the debris ring, astrophysicists Erika Nesvold of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Marc Kuchner of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., report.