Kuiper Belt–like Hot and Cold Populations of Planetesimal Inclinations in the β Pictoris Belt Revealed by ALMA

L Matrà, MC Wyatt, DJ Wilner, WRF Dent… - The Astronomical …, 2019 - iopscience.iop.org
L Matrà, MC Wyatt, DJ Wilner, WRF Dent, S Marino, GM Kennedy, J Milli
The Astronomical Journal, 2019iopscience.iop.org
The inclination distribution of the Kuiper Belt provides unique constraints on its origin and
dynamical evolution, motivating vertically resolved observations of extrasolar planetesimal
belts. We present ALMA observations of millimeter emission in the near edge-on
planetesimal belt around β Pictoris, finding that the vertical distribution is significantly better
described by the sum of two Gaussians compared to a single Gaussian. This indicates that,
as for the Kuiper Belt, the inclination distribution of β Pic's belt is better described by the sum …
Abstract
The inclination distribution of the Kuiper Belt provides unique constraints on its origin and dynamical evolution, motivating vertically resolved observations of extrasolar planetesimal belts. We present ALMA observations of millimeter emission in the near edge-on planetesimal belt around β Pictoris, finding that the vertical distribution is significantly better described by the sum of two Gaussians compared to a single Gaussian. This indicates that, as for the Kuiper Belt, the inclination distribution of β Pic's belt is better described by the sum of dynamically hot and cold populations, rather than a single component. The hot and cold populations have rms inclinations of
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