IUE observations of beta Pictoris : an IRAS candidate for a proto-planetary system.

Abstract

The authors have obtained new IUE observations of β Pic, which was identified from IRAS observations as one of the several candidate stars associated with proto-planetary systems (reported by Aumann and colleagues) and whose near-infrared imagery by Smith and Terrile showed an edge-on disk surrounding the star. New high-resolution spectra, when compared with previously acquired data by Slettebak and Carpenter, revealed sharp, variable absorption in the resonance lines as well as metastable transitions of Fe II at the velocity of the photosphere of β Pic. These features must arise either in an extended gaseous envelope around the star or a circumstellar nebula. If the variable Fe II absorption originates in a circumstellar disk, it implies that the disk is possibly clumpy at distances less than 1 - 2 AU from the star.