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This is a visible light image of the disk, which appears spindle-like
because it is tilted nearly edge-on to our view. The disk is made up
of microscopic dust grains of ices and silicate particles, and shines
by reflected light from the star. This image indicates that the
central clearing is occupied by one or more planets which agglomerated
out of the disk and then swept out smaller particles. The bright star,
which lies at the center of the disk, is blocked out in this image.
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False-color is applied through image processing to accentuate details
in the disk structure. Hubble reveals that the pink-white inner edge of
the disk is slightly tilted from the plane of the outer disk
(red-yellow-green) as identified by a dotted line. A simple explanation
is that a large planet is pulling on the disk. It is not possible to
see the planet directly because it is close to the star, and perhaps a
billion-times fainter.
This image was taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in January, 1995. The star is located 50 light-years away in the southern constellation Pictor (Painter's Easel). Beta Pictoris is a main sequence star, slightly hotter than our Sun.
PHOTO NO.: STSCI-PRC96-02
January 17, 1996