Faintest Planet Ever Seen | Lexington News

Lexington News Today | 2 Min News | The Daily News Now! · Jul 15, 2026 · 1m

Astronomers have finally caught a glimpse of the faintest planet ever directly imaged—hidden for over a decade around the young star Beta Pictoris. Two separate teams, using the European Southern Observatory and NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, stumbled upon it simultaneously while studying other planets. This gas giant, slightly larger than Jupiter, takes 91 years to orbit its star in a system just 20 million years old—like a cosmic baby photo of our solar system’s early days. Located 63 light-years away, this rare find offers a unique window into how planetary systems form and evolve, with only…