Has the dust clump in the debris disc of Beta Pictoris moved?

ABSTRACT The edge-on debris disc of the nearby young star Beta Pictoris shows an unusual brightness asymmetry in the form of a clump. The clump has been detected in both the mid-infrared (IR) and CO, and its origin has so far remained uncertain. Here, we present new mid-IR observations of Beta Pic t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2023-01, Vol.519 (3), p.3257-3270
Main Authors: Han, Y, Wyatt, M C, Dent, W R F
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:ABSTRACT The edge-on debris disc of the nearby young star Beta Pictoris shows an unusual brightness asymmetry in the form of a clump. The clump has been detected in both the mid-infrared (IR) and CO, and its origin has so far remained uncertain. Here, we present new mid-IR observations of Beta Pic to track any motion of the dust clump. Together with previous observations, the data span a period of 12 yr. We measured any projected displacement of the dust clump over the 12-yr period to be $0.2^{+1.3}_{-1.4}$ au away from the star based on the median and 1σ uncertainty, and constrain this displacement to be
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stac3769