Glimpse of a Hidden Giant: Beta Pictoris d Emerges from Archival Data
Astronomers have directly imaged a faint gas giant, Beta Pictoris d, orbiting the young nearby star Beta Pictoris—first seen in archival VLT SPHERE data and independently confirmed by JWST. Weighing roughly 2.4 Jupiter masses and orbiting at about 26 AU with a ~91-year period, it is the faintest exoplanet imaged from the ground (100x fainter than Beta Pictoris b). JWST spectra revealed methane, carbon monoxide, and water vapor, helping distinguish the planet from the debris disk. This discovery makes Beta Pictoris the second system with three directly imaged planets and offers a valuable lab for studying planet formation and disk sculpting, with ELT prospects for uncovering more hidden worlds.