2006/04/20 by Aki Roberge, Paul D. Feldman, Alycia J. Weinberger +4 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature04832
published as Nature 441 (2006) 724 · Accepted for publication in Nature. PDF document, 12 pages. Supplementary information may be found at http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/akir/Documents/roberge_supp.pdf *** Version 2 : Removed extraneous publication information, per instructions from the Nature editor. No other changes made
arxiv created 2006/04/20 · openalex publication_date 2006/06/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The edge-on disk surrounding the nearby young star Beta Pictoris is the archetype of the "debris disks", which are composed of dust and gas produced by collisions and evaporation of planetesimals, analogues of Solar System comets and asteroids. These disks provide a window on the formation and early evolution of terrestrial planets. Previous observations of Beta Pic concluded that the disk gas has roughly solar abundances of elements [1], but this poses a problem because such gas should be rapidly blown away from the star, contrary to observations of a stable gas disk in Keplerian rotation [1, 2]. Here we report the detection of singly and doubly ionized carbon (CII, CIII) and neutral atomic oxygen (OI) gas in the Beta Pic disk; measurement of these abundant volatile species permits a much more complete gas inventory. Carbon is extremely overabundant relative to every other measured element. This appears to solve the problem of the stable gas disk, since the carbon overabundance should keep the gas disk in Keplerian rotation [3]. New questions arise, however, since the overabundance may indicate the gas is produced from material more carbon-rich than the expected Solar System analogues.