Astronomers spot the dimmest planet ever

Scientists have finally spotted the dimmest planet ever seen from Earth – after more than a decade.The faint, elusive world orbits a young star. It had been lying undiscovered in existing data for 11 years, but was hidden in the bright light of its star and two companion worlds.The planet was found, separately, by two teams just a few days apart, last year.A Scottish and German-led team spied the new planet around the star Beta Pictoris using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, then dug through archives to confirm its orbit. The planet had remained hidden in the data all this time, overshadowed by its considerably brighter star and two companion planets.“It was very much playing hide-and-seek for 11 years,” said the European Southern Observatory's Markus Bons