Discovery of 30 exocomets in a young planetary system

Artist's impression of exocomets orbiting the star - Pictoris. ©  ESO/L. Calçada - For the past thirty years, the star - Pictoris has fascinated astronomers because it enables them to observe a planetary system in the process of formation. It is made up of at least two young planets, and also contains comets, which were detected as early as 1987. These were the first comets ever observed around a star other than the Sun. Now, an international research team headed by Alain Lecavelier des Etangs, CNRS researcher at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (CNRS/Sorbonne Université) 1 , has discovered 30 such exocomets and determined the size of their nuclei 2 , which vary between 3 and 14 kilometres in diameter. Light curves of a comet transiting its star.