Molecular Gas Clumps from the Destruction of Icy Bodies in the β Pictoris Debris Disk

2014/03/07 by W. R. F. Dent, M. C. Wyatt, Aki Roberge +21 · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Atomic and Molecular Physics #astro-ph.SR

paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1248726

published as Science (2014) 343, 1490

openalex publication_date 2014/03/07 · arxiv created 2014/04/04 · arxiv updated 2015/06/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Many stars are surrounded by disks of dusty debris formed in the collisions of asteroids, comets and dwarf planets. But is gas also released in such events? Observations at submm wavelengths of the archetypal debris disk around β Pictoris show that 0.3% of a Moon mass of carbon monoxide orbits in its debris belt. The gas distribution is highly asymmetric, with 30% found in a single clump 85AU from the star, in a plane closely aligned with the orbit of the inner planet, β Pic b. This gas clump delineates a region of enhanced collisions, either from a mean motion resonance with an unseen giant planet, or from the remnants of a collision of Mars-mass planets.

Citations

• Stabilization of the disk around β Pictoris by extremely carbon-rich gas
• Hubble Space TelescopeACS Multiband Coronagraphic Imaging of the Debris Disk around β Pictoris
• Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction

Cited by

• VOLATILE-RICH CIRCUMSTELLAR GAS IN THE UNUSUAL 49 CETI DEBRIS DISK
• GAP CLEARING BY PLANETS IN A COLLISIONAL DEBRIS DISK
• ALMA Resolves C i Emission from the β Pictoris Debris Disk
• Constraints on the circumstellar dust around KIC 8462852
• Signatures of massive collisions in debris discs A self-consistent numerical model
• Deep ALMA search for CO gas in the HD 95086 debris disc
• Carbon monoxide [wikipedia]

Related

• Gas in Dusty Debris Disks
• Argon in beta Pictoris -- entrapment and release of volatile in disks
• Dust and Gas Debris Around Main Sequence Stars
• Discovery of carbon monoxide emission from five debris disks around young A-type stars
• MINDS: Detection of an inner gas disk caused by evaporating bodies around HD 172555