A disc of material -- possibly a developing solar system -- discovered in 1984 around the nearby star Beta Pictoris has been found to be at least twice as large as originally believed. Drs. Bradford A. Smith of the University of Arizona and Richard J. Terrile of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who first photographed the circumstellar disc, rephotographed the star with improved instruments in February 1985 and found the circumstellar disc to reach more than 1,000 astronomical units (about 100 billion miles) from Beta Pictoris. Their original data showed the disc to reach half that distance. The disc is seen nearly edge- on in this false-color picture. The disc, the diameter of which is at least 20 times larger than that of our solar system, is thought to be comprised of dust- to brick-sized particles. Light from the star was blocked by an instrument called a planetary coronagraph so the faint disc could be photographed. The instrument was used in conjunction with a sensitive charge- coupled device (CCD) detector and the 2.5-meter (100-inch) duPont telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The observatory is operated by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. #####
description
A disc of material -- possibly a developing solar system -- discovered in 1984 around the nearby star Beta Pictoris has been found to be at least twice as large as originally believed. Drs. Bradford A. Smith of the University of Arizona and Richard J. Terrile of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who first photographed the circumstellar disc, rephotographed the star with improved instruments in February 1985 and found the circumstellar disc to reach more than 1,000 astronomical units (about 100 billion miles) from Beta Pictoris. Their original data showed the disc to reach half that distance. The disc is seen nearly edge- on in this false-color picture. The disc, the diameter of which is at least 20 times larger than that of our solar system, is thought to be comprised of dust- to brick-sized particles. Light from the star was blocked by an instrument called a planetary coronagraph so the faint disc could be photographed. The instrument was used in conjunction with a sensitive charge- coupled device (CCD) detector and the 2.5-meter (100-inch) duPont telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The observatory is operated by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. #####
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