Webb Space Telescope

Astronomers discovered a faint, cold gas giant planet orbiting the young star Beta Pictoris after more than a decade of observation. Two independent teams using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and NASA’s Webb Space Telescope confirmed the planet, the dimmest ever directly imaged from Earth, which had previously been obscured by the star’s brightness and other planets.

Astronomers discovered the dimmest directly imaged exoplanet, a cold gas giant orbiting Beta Pictoris, after two independent teams used different telescopes to detect it. The planet, 100 times fainter than previously identified companions, takes 91 years to orbit a young star system 63 light-years from Earth.

Astronomers discovered two super-puff planets orbiting a star 1,110 light-years away in the constellation Volans. The planets, the largest exoplanets found with a density lower than cotton candy, are likely composed of hydrogen and helium. The study was led by George Dransfield from the University of Oxford and published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Neptune's moon Nereid may be an original companion that survived a cosmic crash, according to a study using NASA's Webb Space Telescope. Nereid's composition is inconsistent with Kuiper Belt objects and its orbit suggests it formed close to Neptune. The findings provide insight into the Neptunian system's origin story.