Astronomers discover dimmest exoplanet ever imaged from Earth after 11-year hide-and-seek

A serendipitous discovery

Astronomers from the University of Edinburgh and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Germany were using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to monitor Beta Pictoris b, a giant planet first directly imaged nearly 18 years ago. The VLT was fitted with the ERIS infrared camera, built at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh with ETH Zurich and Leiden University. While analysing the data, they spotted an unexpected object. Ben Sutlieff, an astronomer at Edinburgh and co-lead of the study, said the find was entirely unplanned.

We initially wanted to look more at a known planet in the system, Beta Pictoris b, to see how it changed over time. However, when we went to analyse our images of the system, we noticed something else that led us down an entirely new path.

The faintest exoplanet ever imaged

The new planet, Beta Pictoris d, is a gas giant like Jupiter and Saturn, but with only 2.4 times Jupiter's mass. Its two siblings, Beta Pictoris b and c, each weigh about ten Jupiter masses. Beta Pictoris d is 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b, making it the dimmest exoplanet ever directly photographed from the ground. Markus Bonse, an ESO astronomer in Germany and co-lead, explained that the planet is relatively cool, which makes it extremely tenuous compared to its bright host star.

The new planet is 100 times more tenuous than Beta Pictoris b, the famous planet of the same system, which makes it the faintest exoplanet ever directly imaged from Earth.

Eleven years of hide-and-seek

After the initial detection, the team searched the ESO archive and found Beta Pictoris d in multiple images dating back 11 years. In one frame, it was barely visible against the glare of Beta Pictoris b. Jayne Birkby of the University of Oxford described the long concealment.

Apparently, planet d has been playing hide-and-seek with us for over a decade and only now can we say: 'We found you!'

Two independent confirmations

A separate California-led team using NASA's Webb Space Telescope independently spotted the same planet just days apart. Both groups kept their work confidential to avoid bias and published simultaneously in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on 15 July 2026. Aidan Gibbs of UC San Diego, who led the second team, noted that the Beta Pictoris system is only 20 million years old, offering a rare glimpse of a planetary system still stabilising after formation.

The giant planets have formed, but smaller terrestrial planets could still be forming. Beta Pictoris is probably our best look at a planetary system just after it has formed and is still in the process of stabilizing.

A rare direct image

Beta Pictoris d takes 91 years to orbit its star, a wider path than its companions. The system lies 63 light-years away in the constellation Pictor. Fewer than 100 of the more than 6,000 confirmed exoplanets have been directly imaged; most are detected by the transit method. Beth Biller of the University of Edinburgh added that multi-planet systems with direct images are especially valuable.

Planets seem to have friends.