Astronomers have discovered a faint, elusive planet orbiting a young star after more than a decade of cosmic hide-and-seek. The planet, slightly bigger than Jupiter, takes 91 years to orbit its star, a little longer than it takes Uranus to orbit our sun.
Discovery Details
Two groups working independently detected the cold gas giant a few days apart late last year using different telescopes. It’s the dimmest planet ever directly imaged from Earth, scientists reported.
The Scottish and German-led team spied the new planet around the star Beta Pictoris using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, then dug through archives to confirm its orbit. The California-led team made the discovery with NASA’s Webb Space Telescope.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
