Astronomers have announced the confirmation of a planet that is less than one million years old, making it the youngest known world to date.
The object, designated Elias 2-24 b, orbits the young star Elias 2-24 located in the Taurus molecular cloud, a region rich in star‑forming activity.
Researchers examined archival observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and complemented them with data from the Hubble Space Telescope to trace the planet’s motion within its natal disk of dust and gas.
The detection shows that planetary formation can begin extremely early, offering a new benchmark for models of how quickly worlds assemble around newborn stars.
Future studies with the James Webb Space Telescope and next‑generation radio arrays aim to probe the atmosphere and composition of this youthful planet in greater detail.