The above image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope uncovered evidence of these rings as apparent knots in the edge-on disk . The ring model naturally explains why the disk protrudes longer on one side than the other. These rings might have been formed when a nearby star passed Beta Pic about 100,000 years ago. Astronomers are searching for this intruder star, which is not the foreground star visible in the wider image . Beta Pic is only 50 light-years away and thought to harbor planets .
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