By Carrie Lock
Astronomers have found signs of what may be the youngest planet known, plus the first signs ever of organic compounds in a region of dust that could evolve into a planet-forming system.
By measuring infrared light, the Spitzer Space Telescope also located hundreds of newborn stars, some with potentially planet-forming dust. “The number of potential Earthlike planets in the galaxy is greater than we previously imagined,” says Michael W. Werner of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.