A galactic tail of discovery: James Webb Space Telescope captures cat tail-like structure in Beta Pictoris system
A unique structure emanating from the young Beta Pictoris solar system has been described as cat-like in shape. What is it and how did it form?
A team of researchers—led by Isabel Rebollido from Spain’s Astrobiology Center—has a tail to tell with the discovery of a never-before-seen cat tail-like structure emanating from a young Beta Pictoris solar system.
Planetary system development
The birth of our planetary system’s sun was chaotic and messy. Clouds of matter and gas gathered together and compounded, forced inward, collapsing under the force of gravity. One or more protoplanetary discs may have formed, within which atoms and molecules of surrounding gas and matter rotate inward toward the newly born star, giving it its spin. Within this primal stage, further accumulation of dust and gas within the protoplanetary disk(s) led to the formation of the planets of our solar system, including Earth.
Beta Pictoris—around 63 light years away from our solar system and the second brightest star nestled within the Pictor constellation—offers an exciting glimpse of solar system formation and development.
Webb telescope captures novel structure
Previous research has highlighted the presence of two protoplanetary disks surrounding Beta Pictoris (one laying more horizontally than the other as seen from the image captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The finer resolution and sensitivity of Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) provided more detail of Beta Pictoris and its surrounding environment than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.
Webb's mid-infrared measurements also revealed temperature differences between Beta Picroris’s main disc, secondary disc, and cat's tail. This disparity shows that the materials have different compositions, with the latter being hotter. The dust in the secondary disc and cat's tail could be made of extremely porous organic refractory material, comparable to that seen on asteroids and comets in our solar system, according to the study. This discovery contradicts previous assumptions and sheds light on the complex nature of planetary debris discs.
The researchers believe the 'cat's tail' encircling Beta Pictoris resulted from a dust generation event that occurred roughly a century ago. The team studied scenarios such as collisions that produce a considerable amount of dust to model the phenomenon. According to the hypothesis, the dust initially tracks the same orbital direction as its place of origin before dispersing.
According to one theory, the star's radiation imposes greater pressure on smaller, fluffier dust particles, forcing them to drift away faster and form a long ribbon of dust. The preferred model of the researchers explains the tail's curvature as an optical illusion caused by their perspective paired with the tail's true five-degree slope from the disc. The dust in the cat's tail is believed to be the same as a huge main asteroid belt scattered over a distance of 10 billion miles.
Evidence of a dynamic young solar system
The researchers posit that the recent generation of dust could also explain an asymmetric extension of the inner disc observed in MIRI data. Using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array in 2014, researchers also observed the presence of carbon monoxide (CO) near the cat's tail, which is a product associated with frequent and chaotic comet bombardment (every 5 minutes!), according to researchers from Cambridge.
As well as containing CO, comets also contain ice, meaning that as well as bringing matter together as they collide and follow the laws of gravity, they also provide a critical element for facilitating the development of life on newly formed planets, water.