Abstract

Since the discovery of its circumstellar dust disk in 1984, the 20 Myr star beta Pictoris has been intensively monitored from the UV to the mm wavelengths, using a variety of techniques: spectroscopy, high contrast imaging, photometry, interferometry, astrometry. It is so far the only system hosting a disk of dust and gas, some comets, and two planets, one revealed by high contrast imaging and one by radial velocity studies. Such a variety of observations of a system is unique.

The beta Pictoris system is now regarded as a remote laboratory of planet formation. It has also become an ideal system to test new instruments and new approaches, such as the combination of different techniques on a single target.

I will summarize the current knowledge and open questions on this system. I will highlight the gain provided by the combination of different techniques for the study of this system, and, more generally, the potential of combining techniques for the study of planetary systems