title: Molecular gas clumps from the destruction of icy bodies in the β Pictoris debris disk.
abstract: Many stars are surrounded by disks of dusty debris formed in the collisions of asteroids, comets, and dwarf planets, but is gas also released in such events? Observations at submillimeter wavelengths of the archetypal debris disk around β Pictoris show that 0.3% of a Moon mass of carbon monoxide orbits in its debris belt. The gas distribution is highly asymmetric, with 30% found in a single clump 85 astronomical units from the star, in a plane closely aligned with the orbit of the inner planet, β Pictoris b. This gas clump delineates a region of enhanced collisions, either from a mean motion resonance with an unseen giant planet or from the remnants of a collision of Mars-mass planets.
authors.affiliation: Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Santiago Central Offices, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla 763 0355, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: W R F
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Dent
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wyatt
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roberge
authors.forename: J-C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Augereau
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Casassus
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Corder
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Greaves
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: de Gregorio-Monsalvo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hales
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: A Meredith
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: A-M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Lagrange
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wilner