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Faint new planet is revealed around a young star after a decade in hiding
KSL News • • science
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 just days apart late 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.
- The planet is part of a young star system only 20 million years old, offering a rare opportunity to study planetary formation and early system stabilization.
- Fewer than 100 of over 6,000 confirmed exoplanets have been detected by direct imaging, making this discovery particularly significant for understanding distant planetary systems.
