Researchers They have discovered a young star, only about three million years oldalong with its transiting planet, the youngest found to date. Both stars form a system that can be a useful objective to study the first stages of planetary formation.
Transiting planets are those that pass between a star and an observer like Earth. The researchers have discovered more than a dozenbut they are all between 10 and 40 million years old.
However, the new giant planet in transit is young, as is the star it orbits (IRAS 04125+2902), located relatively close to Earthaccording to a study published Nature signed, among others, by the Astrophysical Institute of the Canary Islands (IAC) and the University of La Laguna, in Tenerife.
The difficulty in detecting young transiting planets may be that they have not fully formed or that from our observation point their view is blocked by a residual protoplanetary disk (the ring of dense gas and dust that surrounds a newly formed star from the which planets form). The star IRAS 04125+2902 It was located by the TESS satellite of NASA, in charge of the search for planets beyond the solar system.
The outer protoplanetary disk surrounding this star is misaligned and appears almost face-on rather than side-on. Additionally, the inner disk is exhausted, a combination of factors that has allowed the observation of the protoplanet in transit IRAS 04125+2902 b.
The young planet has an orbital period of 8.83 daysa radius 10.7 times that of Earth and approximately 30% of the mass of Jupiter. The authors suggest that it could be a precursor to the super-Earth and sub-Neptune planets frequently found orbiting main sequence stars.
Given the young age of this star and planet, the rare misalignment of the disk, and the relative proximity to Earth, the authors suggest that this system could be a target useful for studying the early stages of planet formation.
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