Image Source: NDTV

Astronomers have discovered a young star surrounded by an astonishing mass of gas which raises questions about current understanding of planet formation. The star, called 49 Ceti, is 40 million years old and conventional theories of planet formation predict that the gas should have disappeared by that age.

"We found atomic carbon gas in the debris disk around 49 Ceti by using more than 100 hours of observations on the ASTE telescope," said Aya Higuchi, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).

ASTE is a 10-m diameter radio telescope in Chile operated by NAOJ.