Puffy baby planets reveal a missing stage of planet formation

Puffy baby planets reveal a missing stage of planet formation

• Date:
• January 31, 2026
• Source:
• National Institutes of Natural Sciences
• Summary:
• A young star called V1298 Tau is giving astronomers a front-row seat to the birth of the galaxy’s most common planets. Four massive but extremely low-density worlds orbiting the star appear to be inflated precursors of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. By watching how the planets subtly tug on one another, scientists measured their masses and...