Houston (Web Desk): Astronomers have announced the discovery of a new exoplanet located beyond the Solar System, describing it as one of the faintest planets ever directly imaged from Earth.
According to the research team, the planet had actually appeared in images taken at least 11 years ago, but it was not identified at the time. Its existence was confirmed only after the latest analysis. The findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Co-lead researcher Ben Stolif of the University of Edinburgh said the discovery was unexpected. He explained that the team was originally observing a known planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris to study changes over time, when a detailed analysis of the images revealed a previously unknown planet.
Co-lead researcher Markus Bonse said that after the initial observation, the team reexamined archived data from the European Southern Observatory, where evidence of the planet was also found in images captured at least 11 years earlier. According to him, Beta Pictoris d is approximately 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b.
Study co-author Jane Birkby of the University of Oxford said it appears that Beta Pictoris d had been "playing hide-and-seek" with astronomers for more than a decade by remaining unnoticed in earlier observations.
According to the researchers, the newly discovered planet is located about 63 light-years from Earth. It is a gas giant, similar to Jupiter and Saturn, while the previously known Beta Pictoris b and Beta Pictoris c are also giant gas planets. The newly identified planet is notable for orbiting its host star at a much greater distance than the other two planets.