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Astronomers Confirm Youngest Known Exoplanet
Confirmed
In Short: Astronomers have confirmed the youngest exoplanet detected so far, a world known as Elias 2-24 b, which is estimated to be less than one million years old.
The exoplanet is still growing within the disk of gas and dust surrounding its young host star, providing direct evidence of planet formation.
Measuring the orbit of Elias 2-24 b will allow astronomers to weigh the planet and its companion star, adding crucial insight to this early stage of planetary formation.
The faint glowing dot of the exoplanet was identified after a decade of cosmic sleuthing, confirming it was an actual planet moving in lockstep with the gap in the disk.
The confirmation of Elias 2-24 b as the youngest exoplanet has important implications for understanding planet formation timescales and the origin of gaps observed in very young disks.
This discovery should encourage further direct imaging of planetary systems which may also harbor faint planets.
The youngest exoplanet detected so far, Elias 2-24 b, offers scientists an unprecedented front-row seat to how planets are born and built from scratch.
What's confirmed
- Co-author Lucas Cieza at the Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos in Chile said : Our planet-formation models already struggled to explain the previous record holders for the youngest known planet — a four-way tie between two planets orbiting the star PDS 70 and two planets orbiting the star WISPIT 2 — which are all more than 5 million years old.
- It shows the exoplanet still growing within the disk of gas and dust surrounding its young host star.
What's still developing
- Astronomers have discovered exoplanets — worlds orbiting other stars — in a wide range of sizes, masses and ages.
- Now, researchers have found the youngest-known exoplanet so far.
- Andrea Bernardi, a doctoral candidate at the Universidad Diego Portales in Chile, led the study that found the new baby exoplanet.
- Last year, scientists said that another baby exoplanet, TOI 1227 b, is slowly losing its atmosphere.
- Bottom line: Astronomers have discovered the youngest-known exoplanet so far, Elias 2-24 b.
- Until now, four other planets have held the record for youngest-known planets.
- Named Elias 2-24b, the newly confirmed exoplanet is estimated to be less than 1 million years old — so young it is likely still gaining mass from the protoplanetary disk surrounding its star.
- But a new paper available in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by a research team led by Andrea Bernardi of Diego Portales University in Chile describes a new paper that definitely takes the prize as the youngest exoplanet we’ve yet found.
- Animation of the formation model of the newly discovered exoplanet.
- With all the additional context, it became clear that there was indeed an exoplanet orbiting Elias 2-24 at around 54.9 AU - well beyond Pluto’s orbit in our own solar system, but precisely in the middle of the 30-AU-wide gap ALMA had found.
- Keck Observatory - Youngest Exoplanet Yet Discovered Found Hiding in Keck Observatory Data A.
- Most exoplanets we find have been around a long time.