CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Astronomers have discovered a faint gas giant orbiting the young star Beta Pictoris after it remained hidden in astronomical data for more than a decade, marking the dimmest exoplanet ever directly imaged from Earth.
The discovery was made independently by two international research teams using different telescopes just days apart late last year, according to findings published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
One team, led by researchers from Scotland and Germany, detected the elusive planet using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. After identifying the object, the scientists searched through more than a decade of archived observations and confirmed that the planet had been present in the data all along but had gone unnoticed because of the overwhelming brightness of its host star and two previously known companion planets.
“It was very much playing hide-and-seek for 11 years,” said Markus Bonse of the European Southern Observatory, who co-led the first research team.
A second team led by the University of California San Diego independently confirmed the planet using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Researchers said only two observations with Webb, the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope, were needed to identify the faint object.
The teams kept their analyses separate to avoid influencing one another’s conclusions before both studies were published.
Scientists described the discovery as largely unexpected. Both groups were studying one of Beta Pictoris’ already known giant planets when they noticed a much fainter object located farther from the star. The newly identified planet is estimated to be about 100 times dimmer than its neighboring planets.
The newfound world is slightly larger than Jupiter and completes one orbit around Beta Pictoris every 91 years, a period comparable to Uranus’ 84-year orbit around the Sun. Researchers believe it resembles a much younger version of Jupiter because it formed within a planetary system estimated to be only about 20 million years old, making it exceptionally young compared with Earth’s solar system, which is about 4.5 billion years old.
“The giant planets have formed, but smaller terrestrial planets could still be forming,” said Aidan Gibbs of the University of California San Diego, who led the Webb telescope team. He added that Beta Pictoris offers one of astronomers’ best opportunities to observe a planetary system shortly after its formation, while it is still settling following collisions involving asteroids and comets.
Beta Pictoris lies about 63 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Pictor. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers.
The discovery is significant because direct imaging of exoplanets remains extremely challenging. Unlike the transit method, which detects planets by measuring the slight dimming of a star as a planet passes in front of it, direct imaging requires astronomers to separate the faint glow of a planet from the intense brightness of its parent star.
According to NASA, astronomers have confirmed more than 6,000 exoplanets beyond the solar system, but fewer than 100 have been detected through direct imaging. Most known exoplanets have been discovered using indirect techniques such as the transit and radial velocity methods.
Researchers said the newly discovered planet will provide an important opportunity to study how giant planets evolve during the earliest stages of a planetary system’s development.
“We’ve now built a picture of this planet,” said Ben Sutlieff of the University of Edinburgh. “We are very excited to see what more can be learned about it.”
The findings are expected to help scientists better understand how planetary systems like our own formed and evolved, offering a rare glimpse into a stage of development that occurred billions of years ago in the early history of the solar system.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
- Venus L Peñaflor
- Venus L Peñaflor
- Venus L Peñaflor
- Venus L Peñaflor
