Birth of a solar system caught ‘on camera’ for first time

Astronomers have spotted a solar system beyond our own in its very earliest stages of formation. Using both ground- and space-based telescopes, the team zeroed in on the young star, named HOPS-315, at the start of its planet-forming era. The baby star was at just the right orientation for astronomers to get a glimpse of its surrounding disk of gas and dust, which is usually obscured by jets of gas pumped out by newborn stars. Researchers have long sought such a system to help them understand the humble beginnings of our own.