Youngest Planet Ever Found Can Reveal Details About Planet Formation
NASA has spotted the youngest planet every found in the solar system. This breakthrough has achieved by the American space agency's planet-hunting spacecraft Kepler.
The youngest planet ever discovered, dubbed K2-33b, is believed to be around 5 to 10 million years old. That is, the planet is still very young, considering the fact that the universe is estimated to be around 14 billion years ago and the age of the Earth is believed to be around 4.5 billion years.
According to reports, findings an exoplanet which is this young is a rare finding. The astronomers behind the discovery are hopeful that the new exoplanet will help them learn a thing or two about how planet formation actually occurs in the universe.
The Kepler spacecraft picked up the signals of the exoplanet by studying the star around which the newly discovered planet orbits. When the exoplanet passes in front of the host star, it starts to dim. Even though the dimming is minute, the signals can be picked up by the Kepler spacecraft in space.
The dimming in the light of the star also allows the spacecraft to identify whether the planet is present around the star, its duration of orbit and how massive its world actually is. With the help of observations made by the Kepler spacecraft and a follow up with the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the astronomers were able to figure out the characteristic features of K2-33b.
According to the astronomers, K2-33b is a bit larger than Neptune and has an orbit of just five Earth days. This indicates that the host star is extremely close to its star. As of now, the researchers are not sure whether the exoplanet for formed initially at its original location or if it migrated to a new position over a course of time.
