{"id":12782,"date":"2016-06-21T11:22:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T15:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12782"},"modified":"2016-06-21T11:22:25","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T15:22:25","slug":"kepler-space-telescope-spots-newborn-exoplanet-around-young-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12782","title":{"rendered":"Kepler space telescope spots newborn exoplanet around young star"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kepler observatory<\/a>\u00a0finds an unusual exoplanet:<\/p>\n

NASA’s K2 Finds Newborn Exoplanet Around Young Star<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Astronomers have discovered the youngest fully formed exoplanet ever detected. The discovery was made using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and its extended K2 mission<\/a>, as well as the W. M. Keck Observatory<\/a> on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars beyond our sun.<\/p>\n

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K2-33b, shown in this illustration<\/a>, is one of the youngest exoplanets detected to date. It makes a complete orbit around its star in about five days. These two characteristics combined provide exciting new directions for planet-formation theories. K2-33b could have formed on a farther out orbit and quickly migrated inward. Alternatively, it could have formed in situ, or in place. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>The newfound planet, K2-33b, is a bit larger than Neptune and whips tightly around its star every five days. It is only 5 to 10 million years old, making it one of a very few newborn planets found to date.<\/p>\n

“Our Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old,” said Trevor David of Caltech in Pasadena, lead author of a new study published online June 20, 2016, in the journal Nature. “By comparison, the planet K2-33b is very young. You might think of it as an infant.” <\/em><\/p>\n

David is a graduate student working with astronomer Lynne Hillenbrand, also of Caltech.<\/p>\n

Planet formation is a complex and tumultuous process that remains shrouded in mystery. Astronomers have discovered and confirmed roughly 3,000 exoplanets so far; however, nearly all of them are hosted by middle-aged stars, with ages of a billion years or more. For astronomers, attempting to understand the life cycles of planetary systems using existing examples is like trying to learn how people grow from babies to children to teenagers, by only studying adults.<\/p>\n

“The newborn planet will help us better understand how planets form, which is important for understanding the processes that led to the formation of Earth,” said co-author Erik Petigura of Caltech.<\/em><\/p>\n