An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The second brightest star, with an apparent magnitude of 3.86, in the southern constellation → Pictor. Beta Pic is a young star of spectral type A lying 63 → light-years away. It has a luminosity 8.6 times that of the Sun and its surface temperature is 8250 K. Beta Pic is surrounded by a dust and gas disk stretching 400 A.U. away from the star in each direction, 10 times the average distance of Pluto from the Sun. The disk is not symmetric, one side is brighter than the other. Moreover, it has an inner clear zone about the size of our solar system (some 30 A.U.). Recently a probable giant → exoplanet lying in the disk has been imaged.

Beta (β), the second letter of the Gk. alphabet; → Pictor.