'Giant baby' planet discovered

The excitement of this finding is that, contrary to popular belief, it suggests that it is possible (and more likely) that planets form relatively early, (by cosmic standards) following the birth of a parent star, rather than later.

German astronomers have discovered a "giant baby" planet in deep space which they say has a mass 10 times as dense as Jupiter but is a scant 10 million years old - a newborn by cosmic standards.

The scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg say it is the youngest known planet outside of our solar system.

Its host star is still surrounded by the disk of gas and dust from which it was only recently born. It orbits its mother star every 3,65 days.

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