Youngest Exoplanet Found Forces Rethink of Planet Birth

Astronomers confirm Elias 2-24 b, a Jupiter-sized planet forming in the disk around a young star about 450 light-years away, marking the youngest exoplanet discovered at under a million years old. It sits roughly 11 times farther from its star than Jupiter is from the Sun and is still growing in a dusty natal disk, challenging existing planet-formation timelines that predict much slower growth at such distances. Its mass could be 2–14 times Jupiter’s, though precise mass remains uncertain due to surrounding gas and dust. The discovery came from combining ALMA and Keck observations, and future observations with NASA’s Roman Space Telescope are expected to reveal many more infant planets.