Youngest Planet Discovered
By Stars & Astronomy On February 21st, 2010The giant planet BD+20 1790b is just 5 million years old and six times the mass of Jupiter. It is situated 83 light years away from Earth and is the youngest planet orbiting a star of a similar size to the sun. Only one young planet, aged 100 million years, was previously known but the newly-discovered planet is about three times younger. ‘There are still very few extrasolar planets that have been discovered. Young stars are usually excluded from planet searches because they have intense magnetic fields that generate a range of phenomena known collectively as stellar activity, including flares and spots.
Stars:
