eso1024 — Science Release Exoplanet Caught on the Move 10 June
2010 For the first time, astronomers have been able to directly
follow the motion of an exoplanet as it moves from one side of
its host star to the other. The planet has the smallest orbit so
far of all directly imaged exoplanets, lying almost as close to
its parent star as Saturn is to the Sun. Scientists believe that
it may have formed in a similar way to the giant planets in the
Solar System. Because the star is so young, this discovery
proves that gas giant planets can form within discs in only a
few million years, a short time in cosmic terms. Only 12 million
years old, or less than three-thousandths of the age of the Sun,
Beta Pictoris is 75% more massive than our parent star. It is
located about 60 light-years away towards the constellation of
Pictor (the Painter) and is one of the best-known examples of a
star surrounded by a dusty debris disc . Earlier observations
showed a warp of the disc, a secondary inclined disc and comets
falling on