ASTRONOMY:
Dusty Young Star Gets New Birth Mates
Robert Irion
Astronomers craving their first image of a giant planet beyond our solar system now have fresh targets to explore: newly identified siblings of Beta Pictoris, the most famous dust-shrouded star in the sky. A survey of the motions of nearby stars suggests that more than two dozen stars were conceived in the same womb as Beta Pic, thus exposing the closest and youngest stellar group yet known. Their youth and proximity to Earth make these stars good places to search for newborn planets, say astronomers.