Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994natur.372..441l&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 372, Issue 6505, pp. 441-444 (1994).
Physics
26
Scientific paper
THE dusty disk around the star β Pictoris is believed to contain a large number of comet-like bodies1,2. Transient absorption events associated with β Pictoris have been observed at many wavelengths3-6 and attributed to cometary objects on eccentric orbits passing between the star and the Earth7. One unexplained aspect of these events is the large asymmetry between red-shifted and blue-shifted features: ~90% of the events are red-shifted6. We show here that such an asymmetry is a natural consequence of the influence on cometary orbits of secular resonances associated with some planetary systems. Results from numerical integrations of test particles in a model of our Solar System show that the v6secular resonance excites objects initially on near-circular orbits to high eccentricities while aligning their perihelia. Depending on the location of a distant observer, this alignment can produce an asymmetry similar to that observed for β Pictoris. Our results imply the presence of at least two planets (a prerequisite for the existence of secular resonances) around β Pictoris.
Duncan Martin J.
Levison Harold F.
Wetherill George W.
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