Planet formation is a complex and tumultuous process that remains a mystery to us. Despite having discovered more than 3,000 exoplanets that orbit stars other than our Sun, almost all are middle-aged, with about 1 billion years of life, or even more, so learning how planets develop since their formation, seeing them as adults, it is not an easy job. Now, a team of researchers led by the California Institute of Technology (USA) has discovered the youngest fully formed exoplanet ever detected. Its name is K2-33b and it is between 5-10 million years old. A baby planet if we compare it with the Earth that is 4.5 billion years old.
500 light years from Earth
The first signs of the existence of this planet were measured by NASA’s Kepler space telescope during its K2 mission. Subsequently, observations at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii validated that the data obtained by Kepler (a periodic dimming in the light from the central star) pointed to a new planet, later named K2-33b. The newly discovered exoplanet orbits a young star 500 light years from Earth. According to astronomers, it resembles Neptune in size and its orbit is five days.
“ This discovery is a remarkable milestone in exoplanet science. The newborn planet K2-33b will help us understand how planets form, which is important for understanding the processes that led to the formation of the Earth and ultimately the origin of life, ”explains Erik Petigura, study co-author.
K2-33b is a blunt world. It is about six times the size of Earth , so if it had a full orbit around its star in about five days, that would imply that it is 20 times closer to its star than Earth is from the Sun.
The formation of the exoplanet
The orbiting star K2-33b still has a small amount of material from the protoplanetary disk to its left, according to observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, showing that it is in the final stages of dissipating and thus completing the planet’s formation process. . One more evidence of the youth of this exoplanet.
” The discovery and study of K2-33b require the use of several of the most powerful astronomical instruments available, both in space and on Earth,” says Sasha Hinkley, also a co-author of the work. It is clear that we have a lot to learn and this baby exoplanet could give us the best clues for it.
The study has been published in the journal Nature.
