beta Pictoris b Archives

This artist’s concept shows the Beta Pictoris system with the discovered giant exoplanet Beta Pictoris d at the right. It has the widest orbit of the known three exoplanets within the system. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

Webb Discovers A Hidden Planet In The Beta Pictoris Star System

by Keith CowingJuly 16, 2026July 16, 2026

[NASA] Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a giant planet outside our solar system, called an exoplanet, hiding within one of the most intensely studied planetary systems […]

Beta Pictoris

Exoplanet Beta Pictoris d Found After More Than 10 Years Of Searching

by Keith CowingJuly 15, 2026July 15, 2026

[ESO] A team of astronomers have discovered a third planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris. The new planet, Beta Pictoris d, is 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b — […]

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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

Dynamics of the Beta Pictoris Planetary System and Possibility of an Additional Planet

by Keith CowingFebruary 22, 2025February 22, 2025

The Beta Pictoris system is characterized by a dusty debris disk, in addition to the presence of two already known planets. This makes it a particularly interesting case for studying […]

Cross-correlation S/N map for H2O, showing a clear detection of β Pic b at its expected separation and velocity. The velocity is in the frame of reference of the planet itself. The separation changes between 536 mas and 558 mas during the observational baseline between 29 Nov 2022 and 1 Nov 2023. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Beta Pictoris, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Deep High-resolution L Band Spectroscopy In The B Pictoris Planetary System

by Keith CowingJanuary 17, 2025January 17, 2025

The beta Pictoris system, with its two directly imaged planets beta Pic b and beta Pic c and its well characterised debris disk, is a prime target for detailed characterisation […]

Schematic diagram (not to scale) of four angular momentum vectors in the β Pictoris system: total angular momentum (Lˆ), orbital angular momentum of planets b and c (nˆorbit,b, nˆorbit,c), and the spin vector of planet b (nˆspin,b). The mutual inclination between nˆorbit,b and nˆorbit,c is ∼ 1 ◦. Secular spin-orbit resonance can occur when the period of orbit nodal regression (path along grey dotted circle on the left) has a similar period to the spin axis precession (path along black dotted circle on the right). The period of spin axis precession can be greatly shortened in the presence of a close-in equatorial exomoon, which acts as a lever and effectively extends the planet’s equatorial bulge. I is the orbital inclination of β Pictoris b (orange ellipse) relative to the invariable plane (grey ellipse). -- astro-ph.EP

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

A Potential Exomoon From The Predicted Planet Obliquity Of β Pictoris b

by Keith CowingDecember 17, 2024December 17, 2024

Planet obliquity is the alignment or misalignment of a planet spin axis relative to its orbit normal. In a multiplanet system, this obliquity is a valuable signature of planet formation […]

PSF-subtracted JWST/NIRCam (left) and MIRI (right) images of the β Pic system (arbitrary color stretch). Five background sources were identified based on their NIRCam colors or morphology whose positions are highlighted in both images with red circles. The orange circles in the NIRCam image show the source positions rotated by the telescope roll angle, where negative ADI residuals are visible. BG4 appears to be the only source which is also visible in the MIRI image. The MIRI image was adapted from Rebollido et al. (2024). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

JWST-TST High Contrast: JWST/NIRCam Observations Of The Young Giant Planet β Pic b

by Keith CowingMay 30, 2024May 30, 2024

We present the first JWST/NIRCam observations of the directly-imaged gas giant exoplanet β Pic b. Observations in six filters using NIRCam’s round coronagraphic masks provide a high signal-to-noise detection of […]

Cross-correlation maps produced using models broadened to the measured rotational broadening of each molecule. These CCFs are predicted to show stronger detections as the models used more closely match the broadened planetary lines in the data, and the influence of noise sources on the scale of a single resolution element in the CCF are suppressed. Most notably, when cross-correlating with an SiO model broadened to the 22 km s−1 rotational broadening measured from the H2O CCF, the evidence for the tentative SiO signal increases to an S/N = 4.3, while other regions are suppressed, suggesting a potential planetary origin. The CO signal is boosted to S/N = 6.6 and the H2O signal is now above the S/N = 5 threshold for a detection, with an S/N = 5.7. Cross-correlation with a broadened model containing CO, H2O, and SiO produces the strongest detection of all models tested, with a S/N = 7.5. The CCFs produced using the H2O model and the model containing all three molecular opacities show an offset from the expected velocity, which is discussed further in Section 6.3. To reduce the impact of correlated signals the noise estimates for these CCFs are measured from a down-sampled CCF, with the planet signal excluded (see Section 4.7). For clarity, and following the convention for HCS, the CCFs are presented here at the 1.5 km s−1 CRIRES+ pixel resolution. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Into The Red: An M-band Study of the Chemistry and Rotation of β Pictoris b at High Spectral Resolution

by Keith CowingMay 16, 2024May 16, 2024

High-resolution cross-correlation spectroscopy (HRCCS) combined with adaptive optics has been enormously successful in advancing our knowledge of exoplanet atmospheres, from chemistry to rotation and atmospheric dynamics.

beta Pictoris b

Webb Discovers A Hidden Planet In The Beta Pictoris Star System

Exoplanet Beta Pictoris d Found After More Than 10 Years Of Searching

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

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

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

Dynamics of the Beta Pictoris Planetary System and Possibility of an Additional Planet

Deep High-resolution L Band Spectroscopy In The B Pictoris Planetary System

A Potential Exomoon From The Predicted Planet Obliquity Of β Pictoris b

JWST-TST High Contrast: JWST/NIRCam Observations Of The Young Giant Planet β Pic b

Into The Red: An M-band Study of the Chemistry and Rotation of β Pictoris b at High Spectral Resolution

Astrochemistry In Action: JWST View Of The Carina Nebula

Reconstructing Ancient Protein Alphabets: What Can We Truly Infer?

Inventories of Rich Carbon-Chain Chemistry in Prestellar and Starless Cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

Variations in the 3.3 µm Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Feature Across Nearby Galaxies Driven by Metallicity and Radiation Field Spectrum

Exploration Of Exoplanet Atmospheres With The James Webb Space Telescope