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- Sep 16, 202690% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
Elias 2-24 b Becomes the Youngest Known Planet, Under a Million Years Old
- Elias 2-24 b is roughly Jupiter-sized and less than 1 million years old, orbiting about 55 times farther from its star than Earth does from the Sun; the star is about 450 light-years away[1]
- Andrea Bernardi, a doctoral candidate at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile, found it by applying new imaging techniques to 2018 and 2020 NIRC2 vortex-coronagraph observations preserved in the NASA-funded Keck Observatory Archive[1]
- It is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters (16 September 2026)[1]
- Models say a giant planet at that distance needs around 5 million years to form, so the finding "shows us that even our best planet-formation models are still missing some important processes," said Lucas Cieza of the Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos[1]
- The planet sits in a gap in the star's dusty disk, and the previous record holders for the youngest known planet were all more than 5 million years old[2]
References 283% CONFIDENCEOverall confidence: 83%How well the pin's source and references back up its dates.Weighted average of how firmly 2 references, the source included, support the pin's start and end times; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newestShow all pins at 75% confidence or better
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003712.htmsciencedaily.com· Posted Oct 1, 2026· Starts Sep 16, 2026 ✓· 51% of score
ScienceDaily gives The Astrophysical Journal Letters publication on 16 September 2026, and Science Times[2] reported it on 22 September.
- [2]75%Youngest Known Planet Discovered: Baby World Elias 2-24 b Is Under 1 Million Years Old - Science Timessciencetimes.com· Published Sep 22, 2026· 49% of score
Science news report with the age, the gap in the disk and the previous record.[1]
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