Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have captured direct images of a nearby exoplanet approximately 20 million years old. The findings are detailed in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
With over 4,200 confirmed exoplanets in more than 2,800 systems, most detections rely on indirect methods like transits or radial velocity. Direct imaging remains rare due to the challenges of separating a planet's faint light from its star's glare. Each successful image marks a significant milestone in exoplanet research.
Researchers have now directly imaged Beta Pictoris c (β Pic c), a gas giant just 63 light-years from Earth. Orbiting the young star Beta Pictoris, this planet is 8.2 times Jupiter's mass and completes its orbit in 3.4 years at a distance of 2.7 astronomical units.
Beta Pictoris itself is only about 23 million years old, still encircled by a protoplanetary disk. Within this dynamic system, two planets have formed less than 19 million years ago. Beta Pictoris c, discovered last year, joins Beta Pictoris b, first imaged in 2008.
Direct imaging requires planets that are large, relatively close to us, yet sufficiently separated from their star's blinding light. The Beta Pictoris system perfectly fits these criteria, enabling this breakthrough observation.
Two years ago, Beta Pictoris b—13 times Jupiter's mass and orbiting at nine astronomical units—was directly imaged. Building on this, the ExoGRAVITY collaboration, leveraging the GRAVITY instrument on the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, targeted β Pic c for imaging. The system is illustrated below:
Next, astronomers aim to obtain detailed spectra of the planet's light to analyze its atmospheric composition. This proven technique on other exoplanets will be crucial for detecting potential biosignatures across the galaxy.
