Astronomers Directly Image Gas-Giant Exoplanet Beta Pictoris c

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer have captured the first direct images of the recently-discovered giant planet Beta Pictoris c.

Beta Pictoris (β Pictoris) is the second brightest star in the constellation Pictor, about 63 light years away from Earth.

It hosts a circumstellar disk of gas and dust and a huge number of comets, some of which were seen falling onto the star.

Beta Pictoris is orbited by at least two 20-million-year-old giant planets: Beta Pictoris b and c.

Discovered in November 2008, Beta Pictoris b is a gas giant between 10 and 11 times the mass of Jupiter.

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Image credit: Axel Quetz / MPIA Graphics Department.

This image shows Beta Pictoris b and c embedded in the dusty disk around Beta Pictoris.

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Image credit: Axel Quetz / MPIA Graphics Department.

An artist’s impression of the Beta Pictoris system.

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Beta Pictoris C or Beta Pic is only 23 million years old, and is a relatively young star. It is located just 63 light-years from Earth.

Exoplanet Beta Pictoris b orbiting its star

Researchers used the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument (SPHERE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to track the long-period orbit of Beta Pictoris b.

For almost two years, the planet disappeared from our view, passing so close to the halo of the star that no instrument could resolve them from one another.

Beta Pictoris b is about 63 light-years away from Earth and orbits its star at a distance similar to that between the Sun and Saturn.