--- title: "Astronomers Think They Found the Youngest Planet in the Galaxy" description: "Astronomers may have discovered the youngest planet in our galaxy — a planet so young that it's still shrouded in its dusty, gaseous building blocks." date: "2022-08-11" modified: "2022-08-11" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronomers-think-youngest-planet-galaxy" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "alma radio telescope" - "exoplanet" - "the digest" --- # Astronomers Think They Found the Youngest Planet in the Galaxy ![Astronomers may have discovered the youngest planet in our galaxy — a planet so young that it's still shrouded in its dusty, gaseous building blocks.]() *\Image: ALMA, University of Florida\* ## Baby Planet A team of astronomers from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) may have discovered the youngest planet in our galaxy — a planet so fresh, in fact, that it's still completely shrouded in its dusty gaseous building blocks, [*The New York Time*s reports](). The researchers announced the findings in a paper, [published in the journal *Astrophysical Journal Letters*]() on Tuesday. In it, they posit that the body is only 1.5 million years old (for context, the Earth clocks in at over 4 billion). A planet this young has never before been identified, and further analysis will likely offer an unprecedented glimpse into how worlds take form. "It is like looking at our own past," Myriam Benisty, an astronomer at the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble in France and a coauthor of the study, told the *NYT*. ## Disk Jockey The scientists began the study of the celestial newborn last year, using Chile's highly-sensitive [Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope](). ALMA is sensitive enough to pick up cosmic radio waves, from which scientists are able to derive a wealth of information about celestial bodies. The *NYT* reports that with the help of this powerful scope, the scientists were able to determine that the baby exoplanet's parent star, AS 209, was shrouded in a circumplanetary disk — a ring of cosmic dust and gas that orbits certain stars and in which planets, moons, and other rocky bodies can form. Another telling sign of a developing solar system? They additionally discovered that AS 209 only recently started to burn hydrogen. In star years, that means the star is pretty young, too. Ultimately, the research seems to raise a lot more questions that it answers. The newborn planet, for example, is [strangely far from its parent star](). But excitingly, the *NYT* reports that scientists are soon to point the James Webb Space Telescope at the burgeoning solar system — and in learning a bit more about this forming world, we'll hopefully discover a bit more about ours. **READ MORE:** [*Astronomers May Have Found the Galaxy’s Youngest Planet*]() \[*The New York Times*\] **More on surprising discoveries:** [*Unexpected "Geological Activity" On Dwarf Planet Ceres Shocks Scientists*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()