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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
The star β Pictoris is not in itself very remarkable; however, it is surrounded by a dust disk that is much more prominent than any other main sequence star’s disk. The proximity of β Pic and the nearly edge-on viewing geometry of the disk enhance its appearance, but do not fully account for the disk’s prominence. While it is possible that β Pic’s disk is intrinsically unusual, a more likely explanation is that β Pic is simply a very young (~ 20 Myr old) main sequence star with a consequently denser second-generation debris disk remnant of its protostellar disk than possessed by older main sequence A stars.