In the simulation, the gravity of the passing star rearranged the orbit of each particle, setting up an elliptical ring system 100,000 years after the almost catastrophic event. The model also reproduced the 20 percent asymmetry in the disk, which has mystified astronomers since the Beta Pictoris disk was first seen 16 years ago. The astronomers are continuing their detective work, searching for the intruder star among 186 suspects near Beta Pictoris. The present results will be published in a future issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency.
Images are available.
A still frame from a computer simulation, which shows a circumstellar dust disk highly perturbed by the gravitational pull of a bypassing star. The gray solid area represents the initial shape and size of the undisturbed disk. In the simulation, the gravity of the passing star rearranges the orbit of each particle, setting up an elliptical ring system that may have survived for the last 100,000 years since the impact occurred. A telltale new warp uncovered in a vast, thin disk of dust encircling the star Beta Pictoris may be caused by the gravitational tug of a bypassing star or companion brown dwarf, say Hubble Space Telescope astronomers. These conclusions are based on unprecedented detail in Hubble images taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which reveal the dim outermost reaches of the disk, which are 7 billion miles from the central star.