Beta Pictoris moving group
Moving group of stars / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Beta Pictoris Moving Group is a young moving group of stars located relatively near Earth. A moving group, in astronomy, is a group of stars that share a common motion through space as well as a common origin. This moving group is named for Beta Pictoris.
β Pic Moving Group | |
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Observation data | |
Distance | 115 ly (35 pc) |
Physical characteristics | |
Estimated age | 20–26 Ma[1] |
Associations | |
See also: Open cluster, List of open clusters |
The Beta Pictoris Moving Group is an important object for astronomical study as it is the closest youthful group of stars to the Earth.[2] The star Beta Pictoris is known to have a large disk of gas and dust, possibly a protoplanetary disk. There is also evidence of a young gas giant planet around the star.[3][4] A free-floating planet has also been found in the moving group, PSO J318.5-22.[5] It has recently been estimated, as of 17 October 2023[update], that more than a third of the single Sun-like stars in the group have planets with more than four times the mass of Jupiter, and virtually all of the single Sun-like stars, 99%, possess at least one gas giant in orbit around them.[6] The age and distance of the group makes it a candidate for directly imaging extrasolar planets.