Astronomers Find The Oldest Super-Earth Planet In The Universe

Super-Earth TOI-561b (CNN)

JAKARTA - Researchers have identified the oldest planet ever found in the universe. This unique planet, called TOI-561b, is thought to have been orbiting for nearly 10 billion years.

This means that the age of the planet is two times older than the sun. These findings indicate that the planet was formed since the beginning of the universe.

TOI-561b has a size 1.5 times larger than Earth, therefore the planet is nicknamed Super-Earth. This rocky planet circles the star more than twice in one day on Earth.

Super-Earth circles the star quickly because of its position very close to the sun. That means, the planet has a very high temperature, more than 1,700 degrees Celsius, as reported by DigitalTrends.

Very fast rotation of the year and high temperatures are not the only peculiarities this celestial body has. The planet TOI-561b also has a very low density despite its size being bigger than Earth.

According to researchers, this planet has the same density as our planet. This proves that TOI 561b has a very old age that was found by them.

The ancient planets had a lower density level because they had a smaller number of metallic elements. As we get older, this metallic element is created until it finally explodes in a Supernova. Then scatter the elements around the planets that are formed.

Earlier in the universe, there were fewer star explosions, so planets were formed with less heavy elements contained in them.

"TOI-561b is one of the oldest rocky planets ever discovered," said University of Hawaii research leader Lauren Weiss in a statement.

"Its existence shows that the universe has formed the rocky planet since 14 billion years ago," he added.

The research used NASA's TESS (Transitting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) satellite. They identified the existence of the planet TOI-561b through the WM Keck Observatory located in Hawaii as recently reported.

However, until now the objective of this study is not known in more detail, including the location of the star system and the distance the ancient planet traveled from the Milky Way galaxy.