Beta Pictoris d was identified around a star 63 light-years away after ERIS images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope revealed a faint point of light beside the known planet Beta Pictoris b.
11 years of archived VLT and JWST data then showed the object moving with the system, confirming it as a planet orbiting at about 26 astronomical units with an estimated 91-year period.
The gas giant is about 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b and is estimated at roughly 2.4 Jupiter masses, making it the faintest exoplanet ever directly imaged from the ground.
An independent JWST team found the same planet using atmospheric signatures of methane, carbon monoxide and water vapor, giving unusually strong confirmation and separating it from the bright debris disk.
Beta Pictoris is now only the second system after HR 8799 with more than two directly imaged planets, offering a rare lab for studying planet formation and disk-shaping by hidden worlds.