Scientists capture birth of recent planet on camera, mother and child doing just fine

In the end the pushing, squeezing and screaming, the universe has finally given birth to a brand new planet , in an eruption that two scientists managed to capture on film. The baby pile of planetary pudge, named LkCa 15 b, was discovered by Drs. Michael Ireland and Adam Kraus, who, over the process 365 days, successfully documented the development using Keck telescopes and a method called aperture mask interferometry. Their findings, published in Astrophysical Journal describe a Jupiter-like gaseous planet that likely began forming some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. Located about 450 light years from Earth, additionally it is the youngest planet ever observed, having dethroned the former record-holder, which was about five times older. Consistent with Ireland and Kraus, the LkCa 15 b remains being formed out of a circle of dust and gas (pictured above) surrounding a 2-million-year-old star. By observing a “young gas giant within the means of formation,” the researchers hope in finding answers to fundamental questions which have long eluded them. “These very basic questions of when and where are best answered if you can actually see the planet forming, because the process is occurring at present,” Kraus explained to the AP. Head past the break to work out an artist’s rendering of the infant, and in case you get the possibility, make sure to send flowers.