00:00When it comes to how planets form, there's a lot we don't know, but now scientists have
00:08discovered the youngest baby planets yet, meaning the process begins much earlier than
00:14previously thought.
00:16Traces of planet formation have been detected around protostar IRS-63 in a stellar nursery
00:22470 light years away.
00:25In the grand scheme of things, IRS-63 is like a newborn itself.
00:29At less than half a million years old, it hasn't fully formed yet from the cloud of
00:34surrounding dust.
00:36Using Chile's Atacama Large Millimeter Submillimeter Array, astronomers noticed the tell-tale signs
00:42of planets forming around the baby star.
00:45This would be the earliest detection of proto-planets yet, meaning planets and stars might grow
00:51and evolve together on a much earlier timeline.
00:54Based on the size of the gaps around IRS-63, the astronomers estimate the proto-planets
01:00to be substantially large, at least one-third the mass of Jupiter.
01:05The research was published in Nature.
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