SoylentNews

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

For the last decade, astronomers on Earth have thought of Beta Pictoris b as a lonely exoplanet orbiting within a huge, dusty disk around the star Beta Pictoris. The planet, a super-Jupiter about 13 times as massive as our Jupiter, has been the only known planet in the young planetary system approximately 63 light-years from Earth for the last 11 years. That was, until today. 

New research, published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Monday, reveals a second planet in the Beta Pictoris system, Beta Pictoris c. The discovery of the planet, another super-Jupiter with approximately nine times the mass of Jupiter, throws a cosmic spanner in our current understanding of the well-studied but largely mysterious Beta Pictoris system. The system is somewhat famous in astronomy circles because of it's just 23 million years old and surrounded by a disk of rock and ice, allowing researchers a way to study how planetary systems form and how they shape these disks.

Beta Pictoris c was discovered by the same team responsible for discovering Beta Pictoris b over a decade ago, led by French astronomer Anne-Marie Lagrange who has been studying the system for more than 30 years. This time, the hunt was a little more indirect.

[...] A specialized instrument installed at Chile's La Silla Observatory, the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), provided 15 years of data to help pinpoint the new planet. The team says Beta Pictoris c lies approximately 2.7 AU from its star. For comparison, that puts it in about the same position as the solar system's asteroid belt.

If the signal they have detected is another planet it would mark the first time a multi-planet system has been found using direct imaging and indirect detection methods. Lagrange says the discovery shows planetary systems may be incredibly massive, with this one now featuring approximately 20 times the mass of Jupiter in just two worlds. And if there are other smaller planets in the system, the massive Beta Pictoris c is likely influencing their orbits, too.

Original Submission