Beta Pictoris c


Beta Pictoris c is the second exoplanet orbiting young debris disk Beta Pictoris, located approximately 63 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Pictor. It has a mass around 9 Jupiter masses, and orbits at around 2.7 au from Beta Pictoris, about 3.5 times closer to its parent star than Beta Pictoris b, and has an orbital period of. The orbit of Beta Pictoris c is moderately eccentric, with an eccentricity of 0.24.

Discovery

Beta Pictoris c was detected indirectly, through 10 years of observation of radial velocity data from the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher spectroscope on the European Southern Observatory's ESO 3.6 m Telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. Led by Anne-Marie Lagrange and a worldwide team of researchers, this discovery can help scientists further understand the formation of planetary systems and their evolution in the early stages.

Characteristics

Mass, radius and temperature

Beta Pictoris c is a super-Jupiter, an exoplanet that has a radius and mass greater than that of the planet Jupiter; it has a mass of around 9 Jupiter masses.

Host star

The planet orbits an A-type main sequence star named Beta Pictoris. The star has a mass of 1.75 solar masses and a radius of 1.8 solar radii. It has a surface temperature of 8056 K and is only 12 million years old. It is slightly metal-rich, with a metallicity of 0.06, or 112% of that found in the Sun. Its luminosity is 8.7 times that of the Sun.

Orbit

Beta Pictoris c orbits at around 2.7 au from its host star Beta Pictoris, about 3.5 times closer than Beta Pictoris b. It has an orbital period of.