Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Giant Planet May Be Lurking In ‘Poisonous’ Gas Around Beta Pictoris

Giant Planet May Be Lurking In ‘Poisonous’ Gas Around Beta Pictoris:







A Saturn-mass planet might be lurking in the debris surrounding Beta Pictoris, new measurements of a debris field around the star shown. If this could be proven, this would be the second planet found around that star.

The planet would be sheparding a giant swarm of comets (some in front and some trailing behind the planet) that are smacking into each other as often as every five minutes, new observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) show. This is the leading explanation for a cloud of carbon monoxide gas visible in the array.

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Read the rest of Giant Planet May Be Lurking In ‘Poisonous’ Gas Around Beta Pictoris (419 words)


© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2014. |
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