Evidence Indicates There's One More Planet In The Neighborhood: Study

The findings indicate that the planet is between one and three million years old and is around the size of Neptune or Saturn.

A new study by the astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics has evidence that there is a new planet in the neighbourhood. Planets are created in protoplanetary discs, which are the bands of gas and dust that encircle newly formed, young stars. Although the universe has hundreds of these discs, it has been challenging to observe genuine planetary birth and development in these settings.

The astronomers have created a novel method to find these elusive newborn planets, along with "smoking gun" proof of a small Neptune or Saturn-like planet hiding in a disc. The Astrophysical Journal Letters today published a description of the findings, reported ANI. 

According to Feng Long, a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Astrophysics and project leader, "directly finding young planets is highly tough and has thus far only been effective in one or two situations." Because they are encased in substantial amounts of gas and dust, planets are always too dim for us to see them.

Instead, they must look for signs that a planet is forming beneath the dust.