Youngest planet outside Earth's solar system discovered

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Youngest planet outside Earth's solar system discovered

LONDON (February 19 2010): The discovery of the youngest planet outside the Earth's solar system was announced by a group of astronomers Thursday. The team from the University of Hertfordshire in Britain has dubbed the planet BD+201790b and placed its age at 35 million years old. Until now, the youngest planet discovered outside the Earth's solar system had been estimated to be three times that age.

The newly discovered planet orbits a star much like the sun, but is six times as large as Jupiter and about 83 light years from Earth. The astronomers said finding new planets is hard work, mainly because it is difficult to differentiate new planets from other stellar phenomena. The team said it took them five years to confirm BD+201790b's existence.