An illustration from the European Southern Observatory depicts the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to the sun. A new study by astronomers using the ESO identifies the faintest exoplanet ever imaged from Earth. File Photo by M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory
July 15 (UPI) -- A team of astronomers found a new exoplanet -- the faintest ever imaged from the ground -- hiding in plain sight in images that date back at least 11 years, a study released Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters said.
Ben Sutlieff, an astronomer at the University of Edinburgh and co-lead of the study, called the discovery a "serendipitous" one.
Sutlieff said the team initially wanted to look at a known planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and seeing how it changed over time. When they analyzed their images, however, they found another planet, one previously unknown.
"There's something else there; did you see it?" Markus Bonse, the other co-lead of the study, remembered saying. The group looked through the ESO archive and found the new planet in images going back at least 11 years. In one image, it was barely visible against Beta Pictoris' first-known planet, called Beta Pictoris b.
