Beta Pictoris (MIRI Image)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has imaged star system Beta Pictoris. Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) enabled a team of astronomers to investigate the composition of Beta Pic’s main and secondary debris disks—the latter feature previously detected by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Unexpectedly, Webb’s infrared capabilities detected a new feature of the Beta Pic system: a curvy branch of dust that resembles the shape of a cat’s tail. This tail, only noticeable in the MIRI data, extends from the southwest portion of the secondary debris disk and is estimated to span 10 billion miles.

The dust that forms the tail may be similar to the matter found on the surfaces of comets and asteroids in our solar system. Further analysis is required to understand the origins of the cat’s tail, though the team believes a dust production event—such as a collision between asteroids, comets, or planetesimals—is responsible.

A coronagraph (black circle and two small disks) has been used to block the light of the central star, whose location is marked with a white star shape. In this image, light at 15.5 microns is colored cyan and 23 microns is orange (filters F1550C and F2300C, respectively).