J.-L. Beuzit et al. In the early 1980s, Beta Pictoris became one of the most important stars in the sky. Beta Pictoris is 50 light years away and any orbiting planets are too small and faint to image at that distance. Shown here in false color, this recent, highly detailed picture was obtained at the European Southern Observatory by blocking the overwhelming direct starlight and imaging the near-infrared light from the disk. The disk's warped bright inner region is indirect evidence for an orbiting planet.
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