Discovery of 30 exocomets in a young planetary system
CNRS Press release
The scientists were also able to estimate the size distribution of the objects, i.e. the proportion of small comets to large ones. This is the first time this distribution has been measured outside our Solar System, and it is strikingly similar to that of comets orbiting the Sun. It shows that, just like the comets of the Solar System, the exocomets of β Pictoris were shaped by a series of collisions and breakups. This work sheds new light on the origin and evolution of comets in planetary systems. Since a part of Earth’s water probably originated in comets, scientists are seeking to understand their impact on the characteristics of planets. Their findings, published in Scientific Reports on April 28, 2022, are the outcome of 156 days of observation of the β Pictoris system using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Other upcoming observations, in particular with the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, should enable scientists to find out more in the future.

Right - © A. Lecavelier des Etangs et al. / Astronomy & Astrophysics 1999
Left - © A. Lecavelier des Etangs et al. / Scientific Reports 2022
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Référence
Exocomets size distribution in the β Pictoris planetary system. Alain Lecavelier des Etangs, Lucie Cros, Guillaume Hébrard, Eder Martioli, Marc Duquesnoy, Matthew Kenworthy, Flavien Kiefer, Sylvestre Lacour, Anne-Marie Lagrange, Nadège Meunier, et Alfred Vidal-Madjar. Scientific Reports, le 28 avril 2022. DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-09021-2
Local scientific contact
– Nadège Meunier, Astronomer UGA at the Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers de Grenoble
Press release initially published by CNRS
Updated on 6 May 2022
[1] Scientists from the Laboratoire d’Etudes Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique (Observatoire de Paris - PSL /CNRS/Sorbonne Université/Université Paris Cité) and the Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (CNRS/UGA) also took part in this research.
[2] A comet is formed primarily by a rocky core covered with dust and gas in the solid state. The tail of the comet appears only temporarily, when the frozen gases are warmed and enter the gaseous state.