Beta Pictoris Archives

Gallery of images for the epochs at which β Pic d is detected (source indicated with a white arrow). The JWST/NIRCam images have been processed with a high-pass filter to reduce disk flux. The known planet β Pic b is the bright source in the North-East of the image in epochs 1–3. In epochs 4 and 5, β Pic b is within the inner mask used for data reduction. We note that for the 2014-12-08 epoch (epoch 6), β Pic b and β Pic d are nearly coincident; planet β Pic b (open circle) has been subtracted here to allow the much fainter β Pic d (arrow) to be seen. All images use the same normalized color scale and field of view, with ticks spaced at 1 arcsec intervals. -- astro-ph.EP

Direct Imaging Discovery of Giant Exoplanet β Pictoris d: A Decade-Long Game of Hide-and-Seek

by Keith CowingJune 24, 2026June 24, 2026

We report the direct imaging discovery of a third exoplanet in the β Pictoris system. We detect β Pictoris d in non-coronagraphic observations obtained with VLT/ERIS as well as multi-epoch […]

GLS periodograms of individual wavelength contrast lightcurves. In each of the panels, the light pink, dark pink, and black highlighted lines are the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 12CO bandheads, respectively. The grey horizontal lines indicate the 1%, 5%, and 10% false alarm probabilities. The black vertical lines indicate the expected rotation period at 8.7 hrs and its first integer harmonic at 4.35 hrs. The top panel shows the uncorrected periodogram, with all wavelengths significantly affected by systematic effects caused by the fibre coupling. The middle panel shows the periodogram after the polynomial correction, while the bottom panel adds Gaussian smoothing to this to highlight strong periodic signals. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

13CO And Potential Variability In β Pictoris b With GRAVITY+

by Keith CowingJune 14, 2026June 14, 2026

The 12CO/13CO ratio was introduced as an indicator for where in the disk a planet has formed. Previously a lower value compared to the host star’s was suggested to show […]

The upper limits on exosatellites around 𝛽 Pictoris b. The blue line represents the radial velocity limits for 50% retrieval of injected edge-on circular orbits. The red line is the outermost stable prograde orbit for an exosatellite around 𝛽 Pictoris b. The pale green line corresponds to astrometric limits from Macias et al. (2026). The Roche limits for rigid and fluid exosatellite bodies are shown in gray on the left. The predicted mass and location for an exomoon which could give Beta Pic b a high obliquity is indicated in purple (Poon et al. 2024). The predicted sensitivity for an additional 25 observations with CRIRES+ is shown in purple. -- astro-ph.EP

Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Upper Limits On Exosatellites Around β Pictoris b

by Keith CowingJune 8, 2026June 10, 2026

β Pictoris b is one of the closest known directly-imaged gas giant exoplanets with an orbit that is almost edge-on to our line of sight, making it an ideal target […]

Two orders of high-resolution spectra with the best-fit model overplotted in yellow for each target. The observation on the first day (September 21, 2022) is chosen for 2MASS J0249-0557 c. The wavelength range is selected to include the 12CO and 13CO bandheads. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Beta Pictoris, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Status Report

Chemistry And Isotope Ratios Of Substellar Atmospheres In The β Pictoris Young Moving Group

by Keith CowingMay 6, 2026May 6, 2026

Measuring the chemical and isotopic compositions of gas giants and brown dwarfs provides insights into their formation pathways and birth environments. 2MASS J0249-0557 c is an L2-type planetary mass companion […]

Artist’s impression showing possible choices for the scale of human involvement in the future of Mars.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Beta Pictoris, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Mars, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Research Roadmap For Assessing The Feasibility Of Warming Mars

by Keith CowingApril 3, 2026April 3, 2026

This roadmap outlines research pathways to determine whether Mars could be warmed with non-biological methods. It does not presuppose that warming Mars is desirable; its purpose is to identify what […]

Illustration of an exocomet transit. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Observations Of Exocomets

by Keith CowingMarch 24, 2026March 24, 2026

Active small bodies in extrasolar systems, the extrasolar analogues of Solar System comets, provide insights into the orbital evolution and physical processes shaping planetary systems.

Astronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Visual Inspection Of Potential Exocomet Transits Identified Through Machine Learning And Statistical Methods

by Keith CowingFebruary 7, 2026February 7, 2026

In this work, we explore several ways to detect possible exocomet transits in the TESS (The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) light curves. The first one has been presented in our […]

Spectroscopic observations of β Pic obtained on April 29, 2025. The HARPS spectrum is not flux-calibrated and was simply renormalized to a flux level similar to that of the STIS data. Numerous saturated absorption lines are visible in the STIS and HARPS spectra, attributed to Si ii, C i, Al ii, Fe ii, Mg ii and Ca ii. The HST spectra are consistent with a stellar model from the PHOENIX library (thick grey line, Husser et al. 2013) at Teff = 8000 K (see Sect. 4.1). -- astro-ph.EP

Beta Pictoris, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Transit Distances And Composition Of Low-velocity Exocomets In The β Pictoris System

by Keith CowingJanuary 25, 2026January 25, 2026

β Pictoris is a young nearby A5V star, about 20 Myr old, embedded in a prominent debris disc. For the past 40 years, variable absorption features have been observed in […]

Upper mass limits for a potential lunar companion to β Pic b as a function of orbital period. The color is proportional to the density of MCMC posterior samples, and the solid curves indicate the 68%, 95%, and 99.7% confidence intervals. The upper panel covers longer orbital periods (≲ 1450 days, within the dynamical stability limit), where companions more massive than ∼ 0.5 MJup (∼ 60 M⊕) are excluded. The dashed line marks the Earth–Moon mass ratio scaled to β Pic b, and the solid green curve shows the moon/binary planet boundary from Stern & Levison (2002), which marks the theoretical separation between large moons and binary planetary systems based on mass ratios and orbital stability criteria. The lower panel zooms in on short orbital periods (≲ 50 days), where the constraints are weaker. The dashed line indicates the Pluto–Charon mass ratio, while the solid green curve again shows the Stern & Levison (2002) moon/binary planet boundary. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

First Astrometric Limits On Binary Planets And Exomoons Orbiting β Pictoris b

by Keith CowingDecember 11, 2025December 10, 2025

The search for exomoons, or moons in other star systems, has attracted significant interest in recent years, driven both by advancements in detection sensitivity and by the expanding population of […]

Distance versus time distributions for the 49 encounters with β Pic that have an empirical probability of at least 95% of occurring within 2 pc. The coloured points indicate the rescaled Mahalanobis distances (ensuring a common colour scale for all stars) derived from the encounter parameters. Points above the 95th percentile of this metric are shown in grey. The black bars represent the 95% confidence intervals in time and distance, obtained from the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles of the corresponding marginal distributions for the further encounters and using the 95th percentile to define the one-tailed distance interval for the closest ones. The central points are the 50th percentiles. The critical radius of 2 pc is indicated by the red horizontal line. The centres of mass of binary systems, listed in table 4, are marked at the pair [t50, d50] corresponding to that star. -- astro-ph.SR

Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

A Kinematic History Of Stellar Encounters With Beta Pictoris

by Keith CowingOctober 13, 2025October 13, 2025

Beta Pictoris is an A-type star hosting a complex planetary system with two massive gas giants and a prominent debris disk.

Beta Pictoris

Direct Imaging Discovery of Giant Exoplanet β Pictoris d: A Decade-Long Game of Hide-and-Seek

13CO And Potential Variability In β Pictoris b With GRAVITY+

Upper Limits On Exosatellites Around β Pictoris b

Chemistry And Isotope Ratios Of Substellar Atmospheres In The β Pictoris Young Moving Group

A Research Roadmap For Assessing The Feasibility Of Warming Mars

Observations Of Exocomets

Visual Inspection Of Potential Exocomet Transits Identified Through Machine Learning And Statistical Methods

Transit Distances And Composition Of Low-velocity Exocomets In The β Pictoris System

First Astrometric Limits On Binary Planets And Exomoons Orbiting β Pictoris b

A Kinematic History Of Stellar Encounters With Beta Pictoris

Perseverance Astrobiology Droid Has Completed A Martian Marathon

Machine Learning And Deep Learning For Exoplanet Detection And Atmospheric Characterization With JWST And The Upcoming Ariel Mission

Bioleaching Of Critical Trace Metals By Sphingomonas Desiccabilis: Substrate-driven Selectivity In Earth And Space Analogues

TESS Reveals The Puffiest Exoplanets Ever Found

An Agnostic Machine Learning Model of Photosynthetic Habitability