blobrana
01-02-08, 05:33 PM
Astronomers have detected the youngest planet so far, a newborn world located in the planetary nursery of a distant star only 10 million years old.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany used a telescope in Chile to pick up indirect evidence of the planet orbiting a star 180 light years from the solar system, in the constellation Hydra — the snake.
Read more (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080103/jsp/nation/story_8737898.jsp)
Despite being a baby, chronologically speaking, it is vast in comparison with Earth and has been classified as a giant planet. Astronomers reckon that it has a mass 3,115 times that of our own planet and 9.8 times that of Jupiter.
Previously the youngest planet to have been identified was an estimated 100 million years old. Earth is calculated to be 4.5 billion years old.
Read more (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3123427.ece)
Johny Setiawan, an Indonesia-born astronomer and his hand-picked team at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany, discovered the massive gas giant, between 5.5 and 13.1 times the size of Jupiter, orbiting within the dust disc of TW Hydrae.
The gas giant takes a three and a half Earth days to zip around the star, at a distance of just 600,000 kilometres.
Light from the star suggests that it is only 8 to 10 million years old. Surprisingly, this means that such planets can form before the disc has been dissipated by stellar radiation.
Position(2000): RA 11h 01m 52.00s Dec -34 42' 16.00"
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany used a telescope in Chile to pick up indirect evidence of the planet orbiting a star 180 light years from the solar system, in the constellation Hydra — the snake.
Read more (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080103/jsp/nation/story_8737898.jsp)
Despite being a baby, chronologically speaking, it is vast in comparison with Earth and has been classified as a giant planet. Astronomers reckon that it has a mass 3,115 times that of our own planet and 9.8 times that of Jupiter.
Previously the youngest planet to have been identified was an estimated 100 million years old. Earth is calculated to be 4.5 billion years old.
Read more (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3123427.ece)
Johny Setiawan, an Indonesia-born astronomer and his hand-picked team at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany, discovered the massive gas giant, between 5.5 and 13.1 times the size of Jupiter, orbiting within the dust disc of TW Hydrae.
The gas giant takes a three and a half Earth days to zip around the star, at a distance of just 600,000 kilometres.
Light from the star suggests that it is only 8 to 10 million years old. Surprisingly, this means that such planets can form before the disc has been dissipated by stellar radiation.
Position(2000): RA 11h 01m 52.00s Dec -34 42' 16.00"