NASA Detects Baby Planet

neema writes "Yesterday, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (web site here) detected the youngest planet, at less than 1 million years old, known to exist. The planet, for those of you who want to visit or something, is 420 light years away circling the star CoKu Tau 4. According to astronomer Dan Watson of the University of Rochester, the discovery of this "Baby Planet" "really causes problems for the major theories of planetary formation." Arist conception pictures and more info can be found at the Planetary Photojournal."

Comments

Current theory is guesswork at best.

[Thag]

We have a lot to learn about the planets in our own solar system, and with current technology we can't even detect most planets circling another star. None of the planets in our soloar system would be detectable if they were circling even the nearest star.

So, any kind of theory-making that goes on now is inherently guesswork without enough data. It's like trying to do a comprehensive study of zoology using only the animals living in the park across the street.

Jon Acheson