New planet revealed around young star Beta Pictoris after decade in hiding

Astronomers have discovered a faint, elusive cold gas giant planet orbiting the young star Beta Pictoris, located 63 light-years away in the constellation Pictor. The planet, slightly larger than Jupiter, takes 91 years to complete an orbit—longer than Uranus takes around our Sun. Two independent research teams detected the planet within days of each other in late 2025 using different telescopes: one team used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, while the other used NASA's Webb Space Telescope. The planet had remained hidden for over a decade, overshadowed by its brighter star and two previously known companion planets. It is the dimmest planet ever directly imaged from Earth. The findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on July 15, 2026. The star system is only about 20 million years old, making the planet similar to a much younger Jupiter.