Hubble Spots Giant Vampire Sandwich?

  • Released Tuesday, December 23, 2025
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Located roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth, this protoplanetary disk, nicknamed “Dracula’s Chivito,” spans nearly 400 billion miles – 40 times the diameter of the solar system to the outer edge of the Kuiper belt of cometary bodies.

Nicknamed “Dracula’s Chivito,” the disk’s playful name comes from its discoverers, one from Transylvania and another from Uruguay, where the national dish is a sandwich called a chivito.

Thanks to Hubble, we now can see this disk’s surprising scale and detail. Dracula’s Chivito is not just the largest protoplanetary disk ever imaged, it’s also a window into how planets are born and how systems like ours began.


For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Paul Morris: Lead Producer

Music Credit:
"Distant Messages" by Anne Nikitin [PRS] via BBC Production Music [PRS] and Universal Production Music

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This page was originally published on Tuesday, December 23, 2025.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 11:18 AM EDT.