dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (01/10/85)
Astronomers have photographed a disk of particles orbiting another star. More -- after this. January 10 The Disk Around Beta Pictoris In the last two years astronomers have found dramatic evidence for the existence of other possible solar systems. In 1983 the Infrared Astronomical Satellite -- IRAS -- found indications of solid material orbiting other stars. The IRAS data showed signs of this material for at least two stars -- and indicated at least seventy other stars that could be surrounded by similar disks of material. Last April one of these other stars was photographed with a hundred-inch telescope at an observatory in Chile. The astronomers at Las Campanas used a special type of electronic film to photograph the star Beta Pictoris. Beta Pictoris is a star in the constellation Pictor -- seen only from the southern hemisphere. The star is about fifty light-years away from Earth. The photograph shows that Beta Pictoris is indeed surrounded by a thin disk-shaped cloud of particles. The disk is seen edge-on, and it extends for billions of miles outward from the star. Just as in the IRAS data, no planet-size objects have been detected around Beta Pictoris. But this star may be at some stage in the process of forming a solar system. So there's still no absolute proof of a planet orbiting another star -- yet. But this is an exciting time -- as astronomers piece together the information from satellite and earth-based observations. They may well be on the verge of discovering for certain that our sun is not the only the star with a family of planets. Script by Diana Hadley. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin