New Delhi:
While researchers have already informed us about the existence of over thousand exoplanets around our solar system, another atypical study led by a group of NASA scientists has recently found a 45 million-year-old planet, orbiting one of its brightest young stars. The discovery is significant as it can further provide information on formation of planetary bodies.
The unnamed planet outside our solar system was first observed in November 2018 during the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission conducted by NASA. There are very less number of exoplanets which circle relatively young stars.
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It has been a quite long time that astronomers are searching for the process of planetary formation, but the action cannot be captured in real time, given to the fact that planets take millions or billions of years to reach maturity.
Talking about the latest findings, Elisabeth Newton, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College, said, "One of the overall goals of astronomy is understanding the big picture of how we got here, how solar systems and galaxies take shape and why".
"By finding solar systems that are different from our own - especially young ones - we can hope to learn why Earth and our own solar system evolved in the ways that they did," Newton added.
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In March this year, the Dartmouth team confirmed about its existence on the basis of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and other ground- and space-based observatories, such as the South African Large Telescope (SALT).
