Beta Pictoris moving group

The Beta Pictoris moving group is a young moving group of stars located relatively near Earth. A moving group, in astronomy, is a group of stars that share a common motion through space as well as a common origin. This moving group is named for Beta Pictoris.

The Beta Pictoris moving group is an important object for astronomical study as it is the closest youthful group of stars to the Earth.^[2] The star Beta Pictoris is known to have a large disk of gas and dust, possibly a protoplanetary disk. There is also evidence of a young gas giant planet around the star.^[3][4] A free-floating planet has also been found in the moving group, PSO J318.5-22.^[5] It has recently been estimated, as of 17 October 2023^[update], that more than a third of the single Sun-like stars in the group have planets with more than four times the mass of Jupiter, and virtually all of the single Sun-like stars, 99%, possess at least one gas giant in orbit around them.^[6] The age and distance of the group makes it a candidate for directly imaging extrasolar planets.