Beta Pictoris - Dusty Disc

Wallpaper Description:

Only 12 million years old, or less than three-thousaqndths of the age of the Sun, Beta Pictoris is 75 percent more massive than our parent star. It is located about 60 light-years away toward the constellation of Pictor (the Painter) and is one of the best-known examples of a star surrounded by a dusty debris disc. Earlier observations showed a warp of the disc, a secondary inclined disc and comets falling onto the star, all indirect, but tell-tale signs that strongly suggested the presence of a massive planet. Observations done with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in 2003, 2008 and 2009, have proven the presence of a planet around Beta Pictoris. The planet has a mass of about nine Jupiter masses and the right mass and location to explain the observed warp in the inner parts of the disc.
Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2