Abstract
The edge-on disk surrounding the nearby young star β Pictoris is the archetype of ‘debris disks’, which are composed of dust and gas produced by collisions between—and evaporation of—planetesimals, analogues of Solar System comets and asteroids. These disks may provide insight into the formation and early evolution of terrestrial planets. Previous work on β Pic concluded that the disk gas has roughly solar abundances of elements1, but this poses a problem because such gas should rapidly be blown away from the star, contrary to observations showing a stable gas disk in keplerian rotation1,2. Here we report the detection of singly and doubly ionized carbon (C ii, C iii) and neutral atomic oxygen (O i) gas in the β Pic disk. Carbon is extremely overabundant relative to every other measured element. This appears to solve the problem of the stable gas disk, because the carbon overabundance should keep the gas disk in keplerian rotation3. The overabundance may indicate that the gas is produced from material more carbon-rich than expected of Solar System analogues.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lagrange, A.-M. et al. The β Pictoris circumstellar disk. XXIV. Clues to the origin of the stable gas. Astron. Astrophys. 330, 1091–1108 (1998)
Brandeker, A., Liseau, R., Olofsson, G. & Fridlund, M. The spatial structure of the β Pictoris gas disk. Astron. Astrophys. 413, 681–691 (2004)
Fernández, R., Brandeker, A. & Wu, Y. Braking the gas in the β Pictoris disk. Astrophys. J. (in the press); preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601244 (2006)
Holweger, H., Hempel, M., van Thiel, T. & Kaufer, A. The surface composition of β Pictoris. Astron. Astrophys. 320, L49–L52 (1997)
Zuckerman, B., Song, I., Bessell, M. S. & Webb, R. A. The β Pictoris moving group. Astrophys. J. 562, L87–L90 (2001)
Slettebak, A. Some interesting bright southern stars of early type. Astrophys. J. 197, 137–138 (1975)
Beust, H., Vidal-Madjar, A., Ferlet, R. & Lagrange-Henri, A. M. The β Pictoris circumstellar disk. X—Numerical simulations of infalling evaporating bodies. Astron. Astrophys. 236, 202–216 (1990)
Olofsson, G., Liseau, R. & Brandeker, A. Widespread atomic gas emission reveals the rotation of the β Pictoris disk. Astrophys. J. 563, L77–L80 (2001)
Roberge, A. et al. High-resolution Hubble Space Telescope STIS spectra of C I and CO in the β Pictoris circumstellar disk. Astrophys. J. 538, 904–910 (2000)
Lodders, K. Solar System abundances and condensation temperatures of the elements. Astrophys. J. 591, 1220–1247 (2003)
Jessberger, E. K., Christoforidis, A. & Kissel, J. Aspects of the major element composition of Halley's dust. Nature 332, 691–695 (1988)
Freudling, W., Lagrange, A.-M., Vidal-Madjar, A., Ferlet, R. & Forveille, T. Gas around β Pictoris: An upper limit on the H I content. Astron. Astrophys. 301, 231–235 (1995)
Vidal-Madjar, A. et al. HST-GHRS observations of β Pictoris: Additional evidence for infalling comets. Astron. Astrophys. 290, 245–258 (1994)
Crawford, I. A., Spyromilio, J., Barlow, M. J., Diego, F. & Lagrange, A.-M. Ultra-high-resolution observations of Ca K line variations in the β Pictoris disc. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 266, L65–L68 (1994)
A'Hearn, M. F. et al. Deep Impact: excavating comet Tempel 1. Science 310, 258–264 (2005)
Chen, C. H. & Jura, M. The low-velocity wind from the circumstellar matter around the B9V star σ Herculis. Astrophys. J. 582, 443–448 (2003)
Deleuil, M. et al. Is β Pictoris an active star? Astrophys. J. 557, L67–L70 (2001)
Bouret, J.-C. et al. A chromospheric scenario for the activity of β Pictoris, as revealed by FUSE. Astron. Astrophys. 390, 1049–1061 (2002)
Acknowledgements
We thank D. Lindler for recalibrating the archival STIS spectra used in this paper. The work at JHU was supported by NASA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Notes
This document contains details of the observations and analysis. It includes one Supplementary Figure showing contours of χ2 from analysis of the OI absorption line. The document has three Supplementary Tables, 1) an observation log, 2) a complete inventory of all species in the β Pic stable gas, and 3) a table with calculated elemental ionization fractions. (PDF 71 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Roberge, A., Feldman, P., Weinberger, A. et al. Stabilization of the disk around β Pictoris by extremely carbon-rich gas. Nature 441, 724–726 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04832
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04832
This article is cited by
-
Exocomets size distribution in the \(\beta\) Pictoris planetary system
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
Two families of exocomets in the β Pictoris system
Nature (2014)
-
Formation of sharp eccentric rings in debris disks with gas but without planets
Nature (2013)
-
Observation of Circumstellar Gas in the Neighborhood of RZ Psc
Astrophysics (2013)
-
Phase relations in the carbon-saturated C–Mg–Fe–Si–O system and C and Si solubility in liquid Fe at high pressure and temperature: implications for planetary interiors
Physics and Chemistry of Minerals (2013)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.