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Astronomers have discovered the oldest known planet, a primeval world 12.7 billion years old that will force them to reconsider how and when planets form. The discovery raises the prospect that life may have begun far sooner than most scientists ever imagined.
A leading planet-formation expert not involved in the work called the discovery mind-boggling.
The ancient world is well more than twice the age of Earth and all other known planets. It is nearly as old as the universe itself. And it has had an incredibly wild ride through time.
The world formed when the universe was just a billion years old, researchers said at a NASA press conference today. It began its travels around a fairly normal star much like our Sun. The next 10 billion years were fairly routine.
Then the planet was booted from its stellar orbit and captured by the gravity of another star that was well into its death throes.
That's where astronomers found the planet, in a controversial search that began a decade ago.
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