> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theglobalvoice.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Astronomers Confirm a Newborn Planet Less Than a Million Years Old - URL: https://www.theglobalvoice.com/astronomers-confirm-a-newborn-planet-less-than-a-million-years-old/ - Published: 2026-09-22T12:44:51.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-22T12:44:51.000Z - Description: Astronomers have confirmed Elias 2-24 b as the youngest known planet ever directly observed. Less than a million years old and still gathering material inside its birth disk, the distant gas giant offers a rare opportunity to watch planetary formation at an exceptionally early stage. - Author: TGV Desk - Tags: Discovery, Science, The Day So Far, has-audio Astronomers have confirmed the existence of [Elias 2-24 b](https://science.nasa.gov/universe/newfound-baby-planet-smashes-record-for-youngest-known-world/?ref=theglobalvoice.com), a planet less than one million years old that is still growing inside the disk of gas and dust surrounding its parent star. The newly confirmed world is the youngest known planet to have been directly observed. It is located about 450 light-years from Earth in the Ophiuchus star-forming region and has an estimated mass between two and four times that of Jupiter. Elias 2-24 b orbits its star at a distance of roughly 55 astronomical units, meaning it is about 55 times farther from its star than Earth is from the Sun. That places it almost twice as far out as Neptune’s orbit in our Solar System. > A Planet Less Than a Million Years Old > > Astronomers have confirmed the existence of the youngest known planet. Elias 2-24 b is less than a million years old and is still orbiting within its native disk of gas and dust around a star located approximately 450 light-years away. The… [pic.twitter.com/WBy0Lyrus2](https://t.co/WBy0Lyrus2?ref=theglobalvoice.com) > > — Black Hole (@konstructivizm) [September 21, 2026](https://x.com/konstructivizm/status/2102033606697009333?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=theglobalvoice.com) Astronomers first suspected that a planet was forming in the system nearly a decade ago. Observations of the young star Elias 2-24 revealed a series of rings and gaps in its protoplanetary disk—the vast accumulation of material left behind after the star’s formation. Such gaps can be created when a growing planet gathers material from the disk and gravitationally clears a path around its star. However, gaps alone do not prove that a planet exists. They can also be produced by changes in pressure, temperature or the chemical composition of the disk. A faint source of light was subsequently detected inside one of the gaps, but astronomers still needed to determine whether it was a genuine planet, a distant background object or an artefact produced during image processing. Researchers have now confirmed the planet by combining observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and the Very Large Telescope in Chile with archival images collected by the [Keck Observatory in Hawaii](https://keckobservatory.org/?ref=theglobalvoice.com) in 2018 and 2020. The Keck observations used a coronagraph, an instrument that blocks the intense light of a star so that much fainter objects nearby can be detected. By comparing images captured over several years, the researchers found that the source moved with Elias 2-24 rather than remaining fixed like a distant background star. Its position also matched the gap previously detected in the surrounding disk, strengthening the conclusion that the object is a planet actively shaping the material around it. The discovery is particularly important because astronomers rarely observe planets during the earliest stages of their formation. Most of the roughly 6,000 confirmed exoplanets are mature worlds that are millions or billions of years old. The previous youngest directly observed planets including worlds orbiting PDS 70 and WISPIT 2 are more than five million years old. --- Elias 2-24 b therefore pushes direct planetary observation much closer to the beginning of the formation process. The planet remains embedded in its birth environment and appears to be accumulating gas and other material, allowing astronomers to examine a stage usually hidden behind thick clouds of dust. Its existence may also challenge current models of how quickly giant planets form. Under the widely accepted core-accretion model, solid material gradually combines to create a planetary core massive enough to attract a thick atmosphere of gas. Finding a Jupiter-sized planet in a system less than a million years old suggests that this process can occur far more rapidly than some models predict. Researchers hope that further observations will reveal the planet’s temperature, chemical composition and rate of growth. More powerful coronagraphs and future space telescopes could also uncover other newborn worlds concealed inside protoplanetary disks. Elias 2-24 b is therefore more than a record-breaking discovery. It provides scientists with a rare opportunity to observe planetary formation while it is still taking place and a glimpse of what our own Solar System may have looked like shortly after the Sun was born.