Faintest Exoplanet Found in Old Telescope Data

Astronomers have directly imaged Beta Pictoris d, the faintest exoplanet ever detected from Earth. This gas giant, approximately 2.4 times the mass of Jupiter, had been present in telescope archives for over 11 years without being identified. The planet was discovered using the ERIS instrument on the Very Large Telescope, and its faintness, about 100 times less than its sibling Beta Pictoris b, made it difficult to spot. Once the team knew where to look, they found the planet in archival data dating back to 2014 and even in recent James Webb Space Telescope observations. The exoplanet only became visible after the light from its brighter sibling was subtracted from the images.