Planet Signs? Sifting a dusty disk

Twenty years ago, astronomers peering at the young star Beta Pictoris got their first glimpse of a disk of dusty debris—the sign that planets, asteroids, and comets are forming and then banging together and releasing an abundance of dust.

ROCKY VIEW. Depiction of a possible planet (upper left) flanked by bands of dust within the debris disk surrounding the star Beta Pictoris (upper right).