A team of astronomers observed firsthand the birth of multiple planets around the star some 450 light years from Earth called LkCa 15.
According to Space.com, the observation is the first of its kind and offers astronomers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to observe a newborn planet develop around a relatively young star.
A co-author on the study, Kate Follette, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and former University of Arizona graduate student, said there was not doubt about she and the rest of the team were seeing.
"No one has successfully and unambiguously detected a forming planet before," she said in a press release. "There have always been alternate explanations, but in this case we've taken a direct picture, and it's hard to dispute that."
The researchers detailed their observations in a study published in the journal Nature.
"It's exciting, because it's the first time that we've been able to image forming planets directly," study lead author Stephanie Sallum, a graduate student at the University of Arizona (UA), told Space.com. "It gives us a system to follow up in the future, in depth, to really understand the details of how planets form."
The astronomers made their observations of the LkCa 15 system with the Large Binocular Telescope in southeast Arizona. They noticed a gap in a disk of dust and gas that appeared to be an indicator of very young stars. When they looked closer they noticed two planets - and possibly a third as they were being formed.
"That single dark shade of red light is emitted by both the planet and the star as they undergo the same growing process," Follette said. "We were able to separate the light of the faint planet from the light of the much brighter star and to see that they were both growing and glowing in this very distinct shade of red."
