Astronomers confirm Elias 2-24 b is the youngest known planet
An international team of astronomers confirmed Elias 2-24 b as the youngest known planet using archival data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
New record for planetary age
The newly identified world is less than a million years old, which breaks the previous record held by planets orbiting PDS 70 and WISPIT 2. Those earlier record holders were all more than five million years old according to the study published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Lucas Cieza noted that planet-formation models previously struggled to explain how such young worlds could exist.
Search method and findings
Andrea Bernardi led a team that analyzed observations of seven stars using the coronagraph at the W. M. Keck Observatory. The researchers blocked light from the host stars to search for fainter planets embedded in disks of dust, gas, ice, and rock. Structures and gaps within these disks hinted that planets were actively forming around them.
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