The 1981 flicker of β Pictoris: a stakeout of planet c rules out a prime suspect

In 1981 the nearby young star β Pictoris flickered for about ten days, and the cause has been debated ever since. Using years of photometry from the BRITE satellites, the bRing project and the Antarctic ASTEP telescope, a team searched the predicted Hill-sphere crossings of the giant planet β Pictoris c for a repeat, and for the signature of a moon-forming circumplanetary disk. They found no 1981-like event, ruling out the planet’s Hill sphere as the cause and setting the stage for ESA’s PLATO in 2028.