Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a newborn planet with a mass similar to the planet Jupiter.
A newly released image and video of the extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, shows how its orbital motion carves a cavity in a disk of gas and dust that surrounds its young parent star HD 169142. Astronomers were able to confirm the existence of the planet thanks in part to the spiral wake it creates as it rearranges the material in this disk as it orbits, similar to the wake a boat leaves as it travels through water.
