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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday August 21 2019, @05:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the exoplanets-galore dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by rylyeh on Wednesday August 21 2019, @05:28AM (5 children)

    by rylyeh (6726) <{kadath} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday August 21 2019, @05:28AM (#882978)

    I implore the living spirit of Art Bell to send me to this place!

    --
    "a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."
    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday August 21 2019, @06:09AM (4 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday August 21 2019, @06:09AM (#882983) Journal

      Rare rylyeh sighting. This is significant. Must mean something. Hopefully something good.

      • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Wednesday August 21 2019, @06:52AM (1 child)

        by coolgopher (1157) on Wednesday August 21 2019, @06:52AM (#882998)

        R'lyeh I think not, with it having sunk in the south pacific. Carcosa you could argue for :)

        • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Wednesday August 21 2019, @07:08AM

          by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday August 21 2019, @07:08AM (#883002) Journal

          Pay attention to your Soylentil usernames! Some are magical, some are cryptic, some are Rednecks in Arkansaws. And then there is the end, the final end, to all Soylentils, the janrinok, The Death of the Eternal September, the Bane of of the Valkyries, the Emeritus Editor in Chief of the SoylentNews! Dwells in the Frankreich, he does, waiting, always waiting, for the coming of the Enemy, Siegfried clothed as aristarchus, a much more formidable enemy, since he is a philosopher.
          Beware philosophers,

          "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men" (Colossians 2:8)

          Anyone who can troll you into thinking for yourself is much to be feared. Be afraid, be very afraid!

          Of course, if you cannot be trolled into thinking for yourself, you should be even more afraid! Since you will not be afraid when you have no idea of the danger you are in! It's Dunning-Kroeger all around! Especially for our poor idiot Runaway. He could have been a normal human. Oh, well, too bad.

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday August 21 2019, @02:32PM (1 child)

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday August 21 2019, @02:32PM (#883143) Homepage
        Do Cacodaemons live on R'lyeh? https://cdn.iopscience.com/images/0004-637X/811/1/18/Full/apj519435f1_lr.jpg
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 2) by rylyeh on Saturday August 24 2019, @05:49PM

          by rylyeh (6726) <{kadath} {at} {gmail.com}> on Saturday August 24 2019, @05:49PM (#884834)

          What do you think devoured Abdul Alhazred, Night Gaunts?!?!

          --
          "a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."
  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday August 21 2019, @03:15PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 21 2019, @03:15PM (#883164) Homepage Journal

    I keep hearing about individual stars and sometimes their exoplanets at various distances from us.

    I think I could better put all this in perspective if I know the average stellar density near here.

    Anyone know the average number of stars per cubic light-year in our neighbourhood?

    Or, for that matter typical densities in a globular cluster? In the galactic centre? In intergalactic space? In a huge cosmic void?

    -- hendrik

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