Some Very Young Stars have Planets
The infrared spectrograph of the Spitzer Space Telescope has been used to examine the spread of brightness of young stars in constellation Taurus.The top graph illustrates how the brightness of isolated stars drops off regularly with distance from the star.
The second graph illustrates that when stars are surrounded by dusty disks, their brightness remains high for a considerable distance from the star.
The third star shows the brightness-distance graph for the star CoKu Tau 4. Its brightness drops off regularly at first, but then increases again further from the star. The inner part of CoKu Tau 4's disc must have been swept clear. An orbiting planet may have swept away the disc material.
The new findings reveal the structure of the gap more clearly than ever before. Because CoKu Tau 4 is about one million years old, the possible planet would be the youngest planet yet detected.
As a comparison, Earth is approximately 4.5-billion years old.
