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The cat’s tail in Beta Pictoris

The cat’s tail in Beta Pictoris
The cat’s tail in Beta Pictoris NASA's James Webb Space Telescope revealed this view of the Beta Pictoris star system, showing its main and secondary debris disks. Using MIRI, astronomers discovered a previously unseen feature: a curved dust plume resembling a cat's tail, which extends ten billion miles from the secondary disk. This structure was likely formed by a recent collision of cometary material. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Christopher Stark (NASA-GSFC), Kellen Lawson (NASA-GSFC), Jens Kammerer (ESO), Marshall Perrin (STScI)