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Astronomers confirmed Elias 2-24 b, a Jupiter-mass planet less than 1 million years old, as the youngest planet ever found. The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on 16 September 2026.
The planet orbits about 55 AU from Elias 2-24, a young star about 450 light-years away in the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region. It is still accreting material inside a gap in its birth disk.
Current models need about 5 million years to build a Jupiter at Jupiter's distance, so a planet this big, this far out and this young challenges giant-planet formation theory.
A rotating disk of gas and dust around a newborn star. Planets grow inside it by gathering material, and a massive planet clears a ring-shaped gap along its orbit. A gap is therefore often the first clue that a hidden planet is present.
Simple Analogy: Like a snowplough clearing a circular lane in fresh snow.
Radio telescope array that first revealed the gap in the Elias 2-24 disk
Optical/infrared telescope that detected the faint point of light in the gap
Used its coronagraph to image the planet directly
Launched on 30 August 2026; its more powerful coronagraph should detect planets in smaller orbits
GS Paper III > Science & Technology > Space
General Awareness > Science > Space / Current Affairs
The term 'Goldilocks Zone' is often seen in the news in the context of
Answer: search for the Earth-like planets in outer space
Mean Earth-Sun distance, about 150 million km
Instrument that blocks a star's glare so that faint nearby planets can be imaged directly
Growth of a body by gathering surrounding gas and dust