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Faint new planet is found after cosmic hide-and-seek
AP News • • general
Key Points:
- Astronomers have discovered the faintest planet ever directly imaged from Earth, orbiting the young star Beta Pictoris, after more than a decade of searching.
- Two independent teams, one using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and the other NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, detected the cold gas giant within days of each other last year.
- The newly found planet is slightly larger than Jupiter, orbits its star every 91 years, and is located about 63 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pictor.
- This discovery provides a rare glimpse into a young planetary system, approximately 20 million years old, offering insights into planet formation and system stabilization processes.
- Fewer than 100 of the over 6,000 confirmed exoplanets have been detected through direct imaging, making this find significant for understanding distant worlds beyond our solar system.
