Astronomers just found the youngest known planet ever

Astronomers have confirmed a Jupiter-size planet less than a million years old, making Elias 2-24 b the youngest known planet and giving scientists a rare look at a world still being born. Its surprisingly rapid formation challenges leading theories about how giant planets come together, especially so far from their stars. Astronomers just found the youngest known planet ever.

Material from the disk is actively accreting onto the Jupiter-mass planet, which sits within a prominent gap in the disk, supporting the leading theory of giant planet formation. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko Astronomers have confirmed the youngest known planet yet, a world less than 1 million years old that is still surrounded by the gas and dust from which it formed. The planet, called Elias 2-24 b, was identified using observations preserved in NASA-funded archives.

It is still orbiting within its young star’s dusty disk, giving scientists a rare opportunity to study planet formation while it is still happening. "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," said Lucas Cieza, a professor at the Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos in Chile and co-author of a paper detailing the results. "Elias 2-24 b shows us that even our best planet-formation models are still missing some important processes." Youngest Known Planet Confirmed In a study published September 16 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers led by Andrea Bernardi, a doctoral candidate at the Universidad Diego Portales in Chile, examined archived observations of seven young stars.