Hubble observations of Beta Pictoris

Hubble has given astronomers the most detailed picture to date of a large, edge-on, gas-and-dust disk encircling the 20-million-year-old star Beta Pictoris. Ongoing changes seen in the disk allow scientists to study the effect of a massive planet embedded within the orbiting material. Beta Pictoris itself is hidden by the dark spot that masks out the the bright star at the center of each image, allowing astronomers to see the disk..