00:00When it comes to how planets form, there's a lot we don't know, but now scientists have discovered the youngest baby planets yet, meaning the process begins much earlier than previously thought.
00:16Traces of planet formation have been detected around protostar IRS 63 in a stellar nursery 470 light years away.
00:25In the grand scheme of things, IRS 63 is like a newborn itself. At less than half a million years old, it hasn't fully formed yet from the cloud of surrounding dust.
00:35Using Chile's Atacama Large Millimeter Submillimeter Array, astronomers notice the telltale signs of planets forming around the baby star.
00:45This would be the earliest detection of protoplanets yet, meaning planets and stars might grow and evolve together on a much earlier timeline.
00:54Based on the size of the gaps around IRS 63, the astronomers estimate the protoplanets to be substantially large, at least one-third the mass of Jupiter.
01:04The research was published in Nature.
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