Young, Jupiter-like Planet Discovered
Astronomers have spotted a Jupiter-like planet that could hold the answer to how our solar system was formed.
This planet 51 Eridani b is double that of Jupiter and is yet a young guy at 20 million years old. As it is 800 degrees Fahrenheit, it is "still glowing with heat from its creation" and gives some hints about how our earth was created, says a study published in the journal Science on Thursday, according to usatoday.
Its air is methane-rich and hence it seems closer to Jupiter than other exoplanets, co-author Travis Barman, a researcher at University of Arizona, said.
"The astronomers also detected water, using GPI's spectrometer instrument.," according to bbc.
As it is situated almost 96 light-years from Earth, it is the first one found with a new direct imaging instrument called Gemini Planet Imager or GPI, mounted to the 27-foot-long Gemini South Telescope in Chile.
It was an instrument that uses a process different from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope in order to locate planets. Even as Kepler searched for shadows or "obstructions of starlight" that indicated a planet, "faint, young planets " that rotated around bright stars were also identified.
Barman said that the instrument could play an important role in locating and explaining how solar systems were formed.
"51 Eri b is the first young planet that probably looks like Jupiter did billions of years ago, making it currently our most important corner-piece of the planet formation jigsaw puzzle," Barman said.
