Constellations · Constellation · Pictoris · Pic
Constellation
Pictor
The painter’s easel. Among its faint stars is a young sun with a disc of dust — a solar system being made.
- Genitive
- Pictoris
- Area
- 247 square degrees · 59th of 88
- Brightest star
- · magnitude 3.24
- Naked-eye stars
- 49 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- mid December
Science
Beta Pictoris, a young star about 63 light-years away, was the first star seen to have a disc of dust around it, in 1984. Two giant planets have since been photographed inside it.
Did you know
Kapteyn’s Star, a faint red dwarf here, is one of the oldest stars near the Sun — probably stripped from a galaxy the Milky Way absorbed.