Constrain the Scattering Geometry of the Cat’s Tail

Determine whether the β Pictoris Cat’s Tail lies behind the star relative to the observer, within the plane of the sky, or near the plane of the sky by applying more physically complete dust-scattering models to the combined scattered-light and thermal-emission observations.

Background

The authors use the ratio between the Cat’s Tail’s scattered-light flux measured with HST/STIS and its thermal-emission flux measured with JWST/MIRI to constrain the scattering phase function and therefore the three-dimensional location of the structure. Their Henyey–Greenstein model favors a location behind the star, but the available data do not uniquely determine the geometry.

The authors explicitly note that their model cannot exclude a Cat’s Tail located in or near the plane of the sky. They suggest that Mie-scattering or discrete-dipole-approximation calculations, together with additional near-infrared observations, could provide stronger constraints.