Astronomers confirm discovery of the youngest known exoplanet ever
Astronomers have confirmed the discovery of Elias 2-24b, the youngest exoplanet identified to date, with an estimated age of under one million years.
Source: Wired · Getaway Magazine · October 7, 2026 at 6:02 PM · AI-assisted report
Single-sourceCHILE, 8 OCTOBER 2026 —
Astronomers have confirmed the discovery of Elias 2-24b, the youngest exoplanet identified to date, with an estimated age of under one million years.
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A research team led by Andrea Bernardi at Diego Portales University in Chile identified the world orbiting the star Elias 2-24, located roughly 450 light-years from Earth. The planet breaks the previous record set by exoplanets orbiting the stars PDS 70 and WISPIT 2, both of which are over five million years old.
The vast majority of the approximately 6,000 exoplanets confirmed so far are billions of years old, according to Wired. While older worlds are routinely located through the transit method, where a star dims as an orbiting body crosses in front of it, younger planets remain concealed inside protoplanetary disks of dense gas and dust.
To locate the planet, the researchers examined seven protoplanetary disks with noticeable gaps, operating on the theory that growing worlds carve voids out of disk matter. They re-examined coronagraph readings, a technique that blocks a host star's central glare to expose faint reflected light from surrounding bodies.
European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope had previously detected a point of light inside a gap in the Elias 2-24 disk, triggering years of debate over its identity. The researchers verified that the light was a gravitationally bound planet rather than instrument noise or a background star by comparing positions recorded in 2018 and 2020 at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
The newly confirmed world orbits at roughly 55 astronomical units from its host star, with one astronomical unit representing the average distance from Earth to the sun. The team estimated the planet’s mass at 1.9 to 4.0 times that of Jupiter, although researchers believe its physical volume is smaller than that of Jupiter.
The findings challenge prevailing planetary formation timelines. Standard core accretion models suggest a Jupiter-sized planet requires roughly five million years to form at five astronomical units from its star, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Elias 2-24b accumulated up to four times that mass at eleven times that orbital distance in under one million years.
The research team concluded that core accretion can build giant worlds far faster than current calculations predict. Lucas Siesa, a professor at Diego Portales University and co-author of the study, stated in a release that the discovery shows standard models are missing important physical processes.
Siesa said the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which NASA launched this past August with an advanced coronagraph, will help astronomers locate more obscured young worlds and clarify how rapidly planetary systems take shape.
Related: Diego Portales University · Andrea Bernardi · Chile