Credit: ESO/B. Sutlieff, M. Bonse et al.

This series of images shows observations of the exoplanet Beta Pictoris d over more than a decade. This planet was first discovered using the ERIS instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Astronomers were then able to find it in archival data taken with the SPHERE instrument, also at the VLT, and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The new planet, marked with an arrow, is the third planet discovered around the star Beta Pictoris. The other two planets are Beta Pictoris b ––the brighter spot seen in the top three images–– and Beta Pictoris c, not seen here as it orbits much closer to the star. The star itself is not visible here: in the ERIS image it was subtracted when processing the data, whereas in the JWST and SPHERE images it was blocked with a special mask. As time goes by the planets orbit around the star, and their position on these images changes. In the 2014 observations, planets d and b appeared almost exactly aligned as seen from Earth. It was only after removing the light of planet b that the much fainter planet d could be seen. The diffuse diagonal band in these images is a debris disc around the star, seen here edge-on, the leftover material of planetary formation.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2609b/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License