Due to its very young age, 2M0437b is still very hot from the energy created during its formation.
JAKARTA – An international research team led by the University of Hawaii, has discovered one of the youngest planets ever observed. With the name they gave it as planet 2M0437b.
It is estimated that this planet is several times more massive than Jupiter. The researchers’ findings were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
In the publication, it is explained that 2M0437b is much younger than other young planets that researchers often find. Where the estimated age is only a few million years. Or formed at about the same time, when the main islands of Hawaii appeared on the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
And because of its very young age, 2M0437b is still very hot, coming from the energy created during its formation.
The planet itself was first discovered by researchers, orbiting in the nursery of the Taurus Cloud (Taurus Cloud nursery) in 2018, using the Subaru Telescope. However, his appearance was only announced to the public recently.
Because once found, they still need another three years to track the planet using the Keck Observatory and other telescopes there.
The length of time to be sure also happens because this 2M0437b has a much wider orbit than many of the other planets in its solar system.
It is almost 100 times farther than the distance between the sun and Earth. And more difficult to observe without the new adaptive optics technology.
One thing that is important in the discovery of 2M0437b, this is a very rare opportunity for researchers to observe a very young world (infant world) directly.
So that means they will be able to observe it for years and learn more about how planets, including Earth, age.
Currently, researchers still need to use special optics to compensate for Earth’s atmosphere. But they no longer need to use parent stars or other tricks to study 2M0437b in the future.
The team hopes the James Webb Space Telescope can help detect atmospheric gases and the newly formed moon. So that in the future, it can explain more about how a planet formation process occurs.
– .
