Scientists have recently discovered three 'baby' planets in our very own galaxy, circling around a star of their own. Scientists believe these three are protoplanets, i.e., large planetary embryo thought to be developing into a planet.
Discovered using a breakthrough new technique by two independent teams of astronomers, the scientists have described these three protoplanets as "the youngest planets ever seen".
The baby planets have been spotted roughly 330 light years from our solar system (yes, that's relatively close!) orbiting around a newborn star named HD 163296.
"Though thousands of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) have been discovered in the last few decades, detecting protoplanets is at the frontier of science," said Christophe Pinte, a researcher at Australia's Monash University and lead author on one of the two papers.
Read More...
