Beta Pictoris - Dust Stream

Dust Stream

In 2000, observations made with the Advanced Meteor Orbit Radar facility in New Zealand revealed the presence of a stream of particles coming from the direction of Beta Pictoris, which appears to be the dominant source of interstellar meteoroids in our solar system. The particles in the Beta Pictoris dust stream are relatively large, with radii exceeding 20 micrometers, and their velocities suggest that they must have left the Beta Pictoris system at roughly 25 km/s. These particles may have been ejected from the Beta Pictoris debris disk as a result of the migration of gas giant planets within the disk and may be an indication that the Beta Pictoris system is forming an Oort cloud. Numerical modeling of dust ejection indicates radiation pressure may also be responsible and suggests that planets further than about 1 AU from the star cannot directly cause the dust stream.

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