#coronagraph

The dark circle and two smaller disks at the center of this image are a coronagraph, deliberately blocking the light of Beta Pictoris' central star (its actual position is marked with a small white star shape) so the much fainter dust disks surrounding it become visible. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope used this technique to image star system Beta Pictoris in detail. 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 a 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. The team believes a dust production event, such as a collision between asteroids, comets, or planetesimals, is responsible. In this image, light at 15.5 microns is colored cyan and 23 microns is orange (filters F1550C and F2300C).