Astronomers have announced the discovery of a faint new planet orbiting a young star, after it had remained hidden from view for more than a decade.
Two separate teams of scientists, working without knowing about each other’s research, spotted the planet within days of one another late last year using different telescopes.
A team led by scientists in Scotland and Germany found the planet using a telescope in Chile, while a team based in California made the discovery using NASA’s powerful Webb Space Telescope.
Both teams reported that the new planet was slightly larger than Jupiter and took ninety-one years to orbit its star, which was called Beta Pictoris.
Scientists explained that the planet was extremely dim, around one hundred times fainter than the star’s other known planets, which was why it had taken so long to detect.
Researchers said the young star system, only twenty million years old, gave them a rare glimpse of what a solar system looked like shortly after it had formed, while smaller rocky planets may still be forming nearby.
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