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Indicator of Exo-Solar Planet(s) in the Circumstellar Disk Around Beta Pictoris

Nick Gorkavyi, Sara Heap, Leonid Ozernoy, Tanya Taidakova, John Mather

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0012470

Abstract

Our efficient numerical approach has been applied to modeling the asymmetric circumstellar dust disk around Beta Pictoris as observed with the HST/STIS. We present a new model on the origin of the warping of the Beta Pic disk. We suggest that the observed warp is formed by the gravitational influence of a planet with a mass of about 10 masses of Earth, at a distance of 70 AU, and a small inclination ( 2.5) of the planetary orbit to the main dust disk. Results of our modeling are compared with the STIS observations.

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