Two independent teams detected the planet within days of each other
CABO CAÑAVERAL, Florida — Astronomers have discovered a faint new planet orbiting the young star Beta Pictoris after more than a decade of being hidden in observational data, scientists reported Wednesday. Two independent teams detected the cold gas giant within days of each other in late 2025, using different telescopes.
The planet’s extreme faintness, overshadowed by its bright parent star and two companion worlds, had kept it concealed. The discovery marks the faintest planet ever directly captured from Earth, according to the researchers.
One team, led by researchers from Scotland and Germany, used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. A separate team, led by researchers from California, used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The two groups independently identified the same planet, a cold gas giant that had remained hidden in the star’s glare.
Markus Bonse, of the European Southern Observatory and co-leader of the Scottish-German team, said the planet “estuvo jugando a las escondidas durante 11 años” (was playing hide-and-seek for 11 years). The planet’s orbit had been buried in archival observations, eclipsed by the brightness of Beta Pictoris and its two previously known companion planets.
MSI previously reported that astronomers directly imaged the faintest planet ever from Earth. The new detection, confirmed by two teams using different instruments, strengthens the finding that the planet is the dimmest exoplanet captured directly from ground- or space-based observatories.
After first spotting the planet in late 2025, both teams reviewed archival data to confirm its orbit around the young star, according to the researchers.