New 'toddler' planet discovered

Young planet bares striking resemblance to Jupiter.

After success with the flyby on Pluto and the discovery of the Earth-like planet thousands of light-years away, a planet much like our Jupiter has now been observed by researchers. Reports explain that the new planet is 20-million-years-old, a relatively young planet and can help man approximately determine the process of formation of the solar system.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - By astronomical standards, 51 Eridani b is a toddler, an infant version of our solar system's Jupiter. However, it has the strongest methane detected from an exoplanet, which is different from the other Jupiter-like alien world found.

The toddler Jupiter was found by the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) and its spectrometer instrument detected water on the exoplane. This makes it more similar to the gas giants in our neighborhood and a more viable alien planet to search for clues on the formation of these planets.

"Previous search methods couldn't find systems like our own, with small, rocky worlds close to their star and large, gas giants at large distances like Jupiter and Saturn. The search for large planets at large separations from their star is exactly the goal of GPI. These solar systems are likely much more similar to our own," said James Larkin, co-author of the study, from the University of California in Los Angeles.

Studies on these exoplanets to show that they exhibit striking similarities to the planets we have in the solar system are being pursued to determine whether the systems are common, according to the report by the BBC.

With 51 Eridani b considered young compared to our 4.5 billion-year-old solar system, astronomers are positive on the case.

"This planet really could have formed the same way Jupiter did; the whole solar system could be a lot like ours," said Bruce Macintosh, another co-author, from the Stanford University's Kavli Institute.

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