  Herschel images in six photometric bands show the thermal emission of the
debris disk surrounding beta Pic. In the three PACS bands at 70 micron, 100
micron and 160 micron and in the 250 micron SPIRE band, the disk is
well-resolved, and additional photometry is available in the SPIRE bands at 350
micron and 500 micron, where the disk is only marginally resolved. The SPIRE
maps reveal a blob to the southwest of beta Pic, coinciding with submillimetre
detection of excess emission in the disk. We investigated the nature of this
blob. Our comparison of the colours, spectral energy distribution and size of
the blob, the disk and the background sources shows that the blob is most
likely a background source with a redshift between z =1.0 and z = 1.6.
