Number 206 (Story #1), December 8, 1994 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein PLANETS AROUND BETA PICTORIS? Beta Pictoris is the only star for which a circumstellar dust disk has been directly imaged. Previously, transitory absorption features were observed in the star's spectrum. Attributing these to the fleeting passage of comets is complicated by the puzzling fact that there are many more red shifts (90% of the sample) than blue shifts among the features. Performing computer simulations, astronomers have now been able to explain the asymmetry in the features by invoking the presence of at least two planets in orbit around Beta Pictoris. (Harold F. Levison et al., Nature, 1 December 1994.)