Mid-infrared images of β Pictoris and the possible role of planetesimal collisions in the central disk

Multi-wavelength images of the well known debris disk orbiting the star β-Pictoris reveal the distribution of disk material in unprecedented detail. The central disk is unusual in that one wing is much brighter than the other. The new images suggest that the bright region is caused by a clump of particles that differ in size from those elsewhere in the disk, possibly the legacy of collisions between planetesimals trapped in the disk, or the cataclysmic break-up of a planetesimal.