A team led by the University of Hawaii discovered the platen 2M0437b, one of the youngest planets ever discovered. Scientists have discovered young planets before, but very rarely have they discovered such a young planet. The reports claim that the newly discovered 2M0437b is only a few million years old.
The planet is about one hundred times farther from its star than our planet is from the Sun, which has helped the scientists discover the planet using special optics but without the help of the host star. The distance between the planet and its star also reduces the chances of interference. The detailed research of the team regarding this planet and its discovery has been published in the Royal Astronomical Society’s Monthly Notices.
Dr. Eric Gaidos, who is the main author of the article, said that the planet’s light can shed some light on its composition and that it might have some answers regarding its origin in a long-gone disc of gas and dust around its home star. This could also point to new information about our Solar System and Earth’s origin.
The new planet was discovered in the nursery of Taurus. The planet is still young so the planet is emitting lava-like heat since its birth. Scientists first spotted the planet back in 2018 using the Subaru Telescope. That was not the end of the observation. The team spent the next three years using the Keck Observatory and other Hawaii telescopes to track the planet to ultimately confirm that the planet was indeed tied to its host.
Gaidos also mentioned that observations made with space observatories like NASA’s Hubble or using the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope might also reveal some details about the gases in its atmosphere and whether the planet has a Moon-forming disc; it might also help find some newly formed satellites around the planet.
