Beta Pictoris Archives

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.

Results of the forward modeling of β Pic b using the most recent spectro/photometric observations of the planet (including CRIRES+) using BT-Settl. Top panel: spectra (points) and photometry (squares) of β Pic b alongside a Rλ ∼ 4 000 spectrum extracted using the best fit parameters for the inversion. Observations have been re-normalized using the analytic scaling factors computed during the inversion. Associated residuals are shown below. Dotted lines represents the ±σ (68%) confidence interval. Bottom sub-panels: zoom versions of the top panel on GRAVITY (upper left), SINFONI (upper right), CRIRES+-K (lower left) and CRIRES+-M (lower right). Similarly to Landman et al. (2024), each CRIRES+ spectra are shown smoothed by their retrieved broadening to show the planet features more clearly. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Beta Pictoris, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Multi-modal Atmospheric Characterization Of beta Pictoris b: Adding High-resolution Continuum Spectra From GRAVITY

by Keith CowingOctober 1, 2025October 1, 2025

We present the first VLTI/GRAVITY observations at Rλ∼4000 of β Pic b. These four high S/N (∼20) K-band spectra conserve both the pseudo-continuum and molecular absorption patterns.

Figure from Rebollido et al. (2024). The debris disk around Beta Pictoris seen with JWST/MIRI. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Status Report

Debris Disks And Their Properties With The Habitable Worlds Observatory

by Keith CowingSeptember 30, 2025September 30, 2025

The study of the last stages of planet formation, also known as debris disks, is fundamental to place constrains on the formation of planetary sized bodies.

Detection maps of β Pic b with MATISSE. The maps show the reduced χ2 values after fitting the stellar contamination for each tested planet astrometry (∆α, ∆δ) in the grid. The grids are centered on MATISSE’s pointing during the planet observations. The left map is the size of the pinhole (1.5λ/D at 3.5 µm) and has a resolution of 1 mas. The right map was generated at higher resolution (0.1 mas) on a smaller 20×20 mas grid. The most likely astrometry from the MATISSE observations is shown as a blue ellipse, found by fitting a 2D Gaussian curve on the lowest χ2r peak. The planet location and uncertainties predicted by whereistheplanet from the orbital fitting of GRAVITY observations (Lacour et al. 2021) are shown as a green ellipse. The multiplicity of χ2r peaks is due to the interferometric nature of our data. As coherent flux is periodic as a function of α. ⃗ ⃗u (see Eq. (7)), an infinity of astrometric solutions can reproduce the signal. This degeneracy gradually disappears when combining data from different baseline lengths and orientations. The χ2r of neighbour peaks can nonetheless still remain close. Using covariances between baselines and wavelengths could help increase the difference between peaks, and will be studied in a future work. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

The Mid-infrared Spectrum Of Beta Pictoris b. First VLTI/MATISSE Interferometric Observations Of An Exoplanet

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2025August 29, 2025

Few spectra of directly-imaged exoplanets have been obtained in the mid-infrared (> 3 μm). This region is particularly rich in molecular spectral signatures, whose measurements can help recover atmospheric parameters […]

Normalized nosZ transcript abundance in metatranscriptomes of marine (red) and lacustrine (green) euxinia. Shown is the ratio of nosZ to rplF transcripts for comparison across 245 datasets with different sequencing depths. Estimates of sulfide concentrations in Proterozoic oceans are shown with dotted vertical lines, with recent estimates in pelagic regions around 2-5 µM (Ozaki et al., 2018). biorxiv.org

Beta Pictoris, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Microbial N2O Reduction in Sulfidic Waters: Implications For Proterozoic Oceans

by Keith CowingJuly 14, 2025

Throughout Earth’s history, shifts in ocean redox influenced the bioavailability of trace metals, shaping the activity of microorganisms.

Final MCRDI data reductions for TWA 7 in the F200W (left) and F444W (right) filters. Both images are rotated with North up, and the + represents the star location. Each tick represents 1′′ (∼34 au), with a total FOV of 10′′ by 10′′ . Additionally, the surface brightness for the F200W data is scaled linearly for 1 MJy/sr to better show the complex disk morphology. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Follow-Up Exploration Of The TWA 7 Planet-Disk System With JWST NIRCam

by Keith CowingJune 29, 2025June 28, 2025

The young M-star TWA 7 hosts a bright and near face-on debris disk, which has been imaged from the optical to the submillimeter.

Telluric-corrected HARPS observations at the sodium doublet, obtained on two nights nearly one year apart, vertically offset for clarity. In both nights, significant disk line absorption is visible, as well as red-shifted lines attributed to a form of exocomet activity. Labels in black indicate the nights of observation, the number of spectra taken and the total exposure time. The night-average spectrum prior to telluric correction is over-plotted in orange, demonstrating the relative positions of the telluric water lines. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Beta Pictoris, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Exocomets of Beta Pictoris I: Exocomet destruction, sodium and disk line variability in 17 years of HARPS observations

by Keith CowingJune 5, 2025June 5, 2025

The young β Pictoris system has been monitored with high-resolution optical spectrographs for decades. These observations have revealed strongly variable absorption in the Ca II H\&K lines attributed to in-falling […]

CN measurement limits in the exocomet frame for a CN line width of 2.7, 10 and 20 km s−1. Contours show signal-to-noise upper limits. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Upper Limits On CN From Exocomets Transiting Beta Pictoris

by Keith CowingApril 22, 2025April 22, 2025

The young (23 Myr) nearby (19.4 pc) star β Pictoris hosts an edge-on debris disk with two gas giant exoplanets in orbit around it. Many transient absorption features have been […]