Newly discovered exoplanet was hidden in data for 11 years

Astronomers have announced the discovery of a faint exoplanet orbiting the young star Beta Pictoris, which had remained hidden in observational data for over a decade. The planet, described as the faintest ever detected via direct imaging from Earth, was independently found by two separate teams using different telescopes within days of each other in late 2023. One team, led by scientists from Scotland and Germany, utilized the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. They later reviewed archival data to confirm the planet's orbit, which had been obscured for 11 years by the glare of its host star and two other known planets in the system. The second team, based in California, made their discovery using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, requiring only two observations. Both research groups published their findings in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The newly found planet is slightly larger than Jupiter and has an orbital period of 91 years around Beta Pictoris, a star approximately 63 light-years away in the constellation Pictor. Researchers believe the planet resembles a very young Jupiter, formed within a system that is only about 20 million years old, compared to our solar system's 4.5 billion years. While giant planets have already formed in this system, scientists suggest that smaller, rocky planets might still be in the process of formation. Direct imaging is a rare method for exoplanet detection, with less than 100 of the over 6,000 confirmed exoplanets found this way, contrasting with the more common transit method.