Astronomers have discovered a new baby planet which looks like a young version of Jupiter. It is beyond our solar system, 100 light years away.
The new planet has been named 51 Eridani b and is only 20 million years old. This very young by astronomical standards!
The discovery was made by the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI),Gemini Observatory in Chile, South America. The imager looks for young planets orbiting bright nearby stars.
The astronomers also detected water on the new planet using the GPI’s spectrometer instrument.
Our own Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It is so big you could fit over 1,300 Earths inside it! It is also the fastest rotating planet too, with 1 day only lasting 10 hours compared to Earth’s 24 hours. However, a year on Jupiter lasts for 12 Earth years.
Scientists hope that the alien world could give us more information about how our solar system began.
2 Responses
How is there meant to be 2 Jupiters?
I want to go to space to see all of the planets to look at the planets to see
thats really cool i want to see it too