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An international team of astronomers has discovered one of the youngest exoplanets ever found. The planetary “newborn” moves around a distant “baby” star in the Taurus Cloud and the discovery was made with the telescope of the Kek Observatory in Hawaii.
The scientists, led by Professor Eric Gaidos of the University of Hawaii, made the relevant pre-publication on arXiv.org and will then make a regular publication in the “Monthly Notices” magazine of the British Royal Astronomical Society, according to the APE-MPE.
Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered to date, but what distinguishes the new planet, named 2M0437b, is that it is very young Furthermore can be observed directly from Earth. Astronomers were able to photograph him with the Subaru Telescope on Mount Maunakea in Hawaii.
Temperature similar to the lava of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii
The exoplanet is estimated to have mass sometimes larger than Jupiter and was created, along with its parent star, a few million years ago, around the time that the major Hawaiian islands emerged from the ocean.
The planet is so young that he is still hot from the energy released during its creation, having temperature similar to lava poured from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. Its distance from its star is about 100 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.
Future observations with the launch of the large US space telescope James Webb, Hubble’s successor, will shed more light on whether the planet has an atmosphere and what kind.
Here you will see the relevant scientific pre-publication.