Astronomers Confirm Jupiter-Size Elias 2-24 b as the Youngest Known Planet, Less Than 1 Million Years Old

Key facts

• Astronomers have confirmed Elias 2-24 b, a Jupiter-mass planet less than 1 million years old, as the youngest known planet, orbiting a star about 450 light-years from Earth.
• The study, led by Andrea Bernardi of Universidad Diego Portales in Chile, was published on September 16, 2026 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
• The planet was confirmed using archived observations from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii from 2018 and 2020, combined with earlier ALMA and Very Large Telescope detections of a gap in the star's dusty disk.
• Elias 2-24 b orbits about 55 times farther from its star than Earth is from the Sun, challenging models suggesting a Jupiter-size planet should take about 5 million years to form at such distances.
• The previous youngest-planet record was a four-way tie between two planets around PDS 70 and two around WISPIT 2, all more than 5 million years old.
• NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launched August 30, 2026, carries an advanced coronagraph that could detect more such forming planets in tighter orbits.