{"id":9090,"date":"2026-09-21T14:55:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T14:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/?p=9090"},"modified":"2026-09-21T17:10:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T17:10:28","slug":"yems-phd-student-confirms-elias-2-24-b-the-youngest-exoplanet-detected-to-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/yems-phd-student-confirms-elias-2-24-b-the-youngest-exoplanet-detected-to-date\/","title":{"rendered":"YEMS PhD student confirms Elias 2-24 b, the youngest exoplanet detected to date"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters \u00b7 16 Sep 2026<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>An international team led by <a href=\"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/researcher\/andrea-bernardi\/\">Andrea Bernardi,<\/a> a YEMS PhD student at Universidad Diego Portales, has confirmed Elias 2-24 b, the youngest exoplanet detected to date. With a mass similar to Jupiter\u2019s and an age of less than one million years, the planet remains embedded in the disk of gas and dust where it is forming.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bernardi carries out his doctoral research as a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milenioyems.cl\/\">Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons (YEMS)<\/a>, funded by Chile\u2019s <strong>Agencia Nacional de Investigaci\u00f3n y Desarrollo (ANID) through the Millennium Science Initiative<\/strong>. The study was published in <em>The Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/em> and featured in NASA\u2019s September 16, 2026 press release.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Artist\u2019s impression of Elias 2-24 b growing within its star\u2019s disk of gas and dust.\" src=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/elias-00.jpg?w=1536\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Artist\u2019s impression of Elias 2-24 b. Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory\/Adam Makarenko, via NASA Science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A planet in the gap of its natal disk<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Elias 2-24 system lies about 450 light-years from Earth. ALMA observations revealed a gap in the dusty disk surrounding the star; ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT) subsequently detected a faint point of light within that gap. Whether the source was truly a planet remained to be established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe planets should be found within the gaps, since they are carving them,\u201d Bernardi says in the NASA release. \u201cAnd that\u2019s exactly where we found Elias 2-24 b.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Confirmation in the Keck archives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team identified the same source in observations from 2018 and 2020 preserved in the NASA-funded W. M. Keck Observatory Archive. Combining the data and tracking its motion over time provided evidence that the source was a planet, rather than an imaging defect or a background star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bringing ALMA, VLT and Keck observations together connected the disk\u2019s structure with the object shaping it. The result also demonstrates the value of astronomical archives: observations obtained years earlier can supply the evidence needed to confirm a new world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A window into planet formation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elias 2-24 b orbits at roughly 55 times the Earth\u2013Sun distance from its star. Building a giant planet so young and so far from its star challenges planet-formation models. According to NASA, the previous record holders for the youngest known planets were more than five million years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The dust surrounding these worlds makes them difficult to detect. \u201cWe are mostly blind to these baby planets right now,\u201d says study co-author Lucas Cieza in the NASA release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is exciting to add another system to the very small sample of planets we can study while they are still forming. These systems give us a rare opportunity to confront planet-formation models with the process itself, rather than only with its end products,\u201d says <strong>Sebasti\u00e1n P\u00e9rez<\/strong>, YEMS researcher at Universidad de Santiago de Chile.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ALMA 1.3 mm continuum image of the Elias 2-24 disk, with magenta, blue and gold regions marking the companion\u2019s position.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.milenioyems.cl\/images\/news\/elias-2-24b-alma-bernardi-2026.png\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ALMA 1.3 mm continuum observation from the DSHARP survey. The magenta, blue and gold regions represent the area enclosing the companion\u2019s position according to the study\u2019s results and previous literature claims. Elias 2-24 b is responsible for the gap and the accumulation of dust at the inner edge of the outer disk. Credit: Bernardi et al. (2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/universe\/newfound-baby-planet-smashes-record-for-youngest-known-world\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NASA Science, \u201cNewfound \u2018Baby\u2019 Planet Smashes Record for Youngest Known World\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters \u00b7 16 Sep 2026 An international team led by Andrea Bernardi, a YEMS PhD student at Universidad Diego Portales, has confirmed Elias 2-24 b, the youngest exoplanet detected to date. With a mass similar to Jupiter\u2019s and an age of less than one million years, the planet remains embedded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,13,6],"tags":[351,350,136],"class_list":["post-9090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news","category-planetary-science","tag-andrea-bernardi","tag-exoplanet","tag-yems"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9090"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9102,"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9090\/revisions\/9102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astronomia.udp.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}