Hubble Spots Beta Pictoris’s ‘Cat’s Tail’, Debris From a Pluto-Size Smashup

Using 14 years of Hubble observations, astronomers studied the “Cat’s Tail,” a feature sticking out of the Beta Pictoris debris disk 63 light-years away, Space.com reports. It’s long enough to wrap around the Sun-Earth system about 500 times.

• It’s likely the aftermath of two Pluto-size bodies colliding
• Beta Pictoris is only a few million years old, a “cosmic kitten” still going through the violent collisions our own solar system went through early on
• Until now the tail had only been seen by JWST in infrared

My take

Hubble is still finding new things after all these years. And “200 trillion house cats” is my new favorite unit.

God Bless, and May the Source Be with You!

References & Further Reading

• Hubble sees cosmic ‘cat’s tail’ (Space.com)
• NASA Asks Industry: Service Hubble, or Bring It Down Safely? (EtherNinja)