For the first time, an image has captured the birth of a new planet still forming in our galaxy.
Astronomers made the discovery while studying a disc of gas and dust surrounding the young dwarf star PDS 70, which was first discovered in 2012, EarthSky.org reported.
There in the dusty disc they saw the young planet still forming.
According to CNN, the newly forming planet dubbed PDS 70b, was found in a gap in the protoplanetary disc and was still close to where it was born and growing by accumulating material from the disc.
The discovery was made by an international team using the Sphere device along with the European Southern Observatory's large telescope in Chile.
Researchers from two international teams conducting studies published their findings in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on Monday.
"These discs around young stars are the birthplaces of planets, but so far only a handful of observations have detected hints of baby planets in them," Miriam Keppler, who lead the team behind the discovery, said in a statement.
"The problem is that until now, most of these planet candidates could just have been features in the disc."
The new planet is believed to be a giant gas planet with a mass a few times that of Jupiter but, with a temperature of 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit, it is far hotter than any planet in our own solar system.
And while imagery places it close to the central star, the distance is roughly the equivalent to the distance between Uranus and the sun.
"Keppler's results give us a new window onto the complex and poorly-understood early stages of planetary evolution," André Müller, leader of the second team to investigate the young planet, said in the ESO statement. "We needed to observe a planet in a young star's disc to really understand the processes behind planet formation."
Earlier this month astronomers announced that they had detected three other infant alien planets being born around a young star not too far away from our solar system.
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