Young planet offers glimpse of worlds being born
Elias 2-24 b is less than a million years old and is still taking in material from its birth disc.
Astronomers have confirmed the youngest exoplanet known so far. Elias 2-24 b orbits a young star about 450 light years away and offers a rare glimpse of a planet while it is still forming.
The planet is probably less than a million years old and has roughly the mass of Jupiter. It lies in a disc of gas and dust around the star Elias 2-24, at about 55 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
The confirmation came through observations with several telescopes. Researchers combined data from the Keck Telescope, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and the ALMA radio interferometer. Earlier Keck observations from 2018 and 2020 were also reanalysed.
An opening had previously been observed in the dust disc around the star. Such an opening can form because a planet pulls material out of its orbit, but it can also have other causes. A faint source of light in the opening therefore remained a subject of debate for years. According to the study, the object’s movement in the combined data fits a planet better than a background star or a measurement error.
The study has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. This makes it a peer-reviewed publication, rather than merely an unreviewed preprint. The researchers estimate its mass at about 1.9 to 4 Jupiter masses, with the result depending on models for the system’s age and brightness.
The discovery is relevant because the planet is still gathering material from its surroundings. Most known exoplanets are much older and are found when they pass in front of their star. Young planets are harder to see because they are hidden in dust and because their own light is outshone by the star.
The observation does not fit neatly into the simplest models of planet formation. According to the models used, forming a planet with the mass of Jupiter at this great distance could take several million years. However, one young system is not enough to definitively reject such models. New observations will have to show how reliable the age and mass estimates are and whether similar planets are more common.
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The core findings are based on a published astronomical study and primary observatory information. Uncertainties about age and mass are explicitly reflected in the article.
- confirmed Elias 2-24 b is less than a million years old. — The study and the observatories involved give this estimated age. source
- confirmed The planet is about 450 light years away and has roughly the mass of Jupiter. — NASA describes the distance and mass as approximations. source
- confirmed The study has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. — This is stated by the Keck Observatory and the authors’ information. source
Editor's note
The discovery and publication status have been confirmed by NASA, Keck and the study. The exact mass and age depend on models; the article is therefore cautious about what the discovery means for broader theories.Sources
More on this in Dutch media
- Het Parool — „exoplaneet elias 2-24 b”
- Trouw — „exoplaneet elias 2-24 b”
- NRC — „exoplaneet elias 2-24 b”