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A Giant Planet for Beta Pic Credit: A.-M. Lagrange, D. Ehrenreich (LAOG), et al., ESO Explanation: A mere 50 light-years away, young star Beta Pictoris became one of the most important stars in the sky in the early 1980s. Satellite and ground-based telescopic observations revealed the presence of a surrounding outer, dusty, debris disk and an inner clear zone about the size of our solar system -- strong evidence for the formation of planets. Infrared observations from European Southern Observatory telescopes subsequently detected a source in the clear zone, now confirmed as a giant planet orbiting Beta Pic. The...

The discovery of a baby gas giant orbiting a young star suggest planets can form faster than previously thought... scientists have determined that a suspected bulge in the dusky disk surrounding the nearby star Beta Pictoris contains a giant gas planet, one that formed incredibly fast given the relative youth of its parent star. Located about 63 light-years from Earth, Beta Pictoris has been around for only about 12 million years, compared to our sun's 4.5 billion years. The star, which is about 75 percent more massive than the sun, sports a bright orbiting cloud of dust and gas. It...