Science is amazing, there’s no getting around it, especially if it gives you a chance to look on as a planet is being born some 335 lightyears away.

Thanks to the European Space Agency’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) earth-bound astronomers are observing what they believe to a planet forming some 70 times further from its star – known as HD 100546 – then the Earth is from the Sun.

In the above image the left side shows the light from the forming planet’s star. It is when that light is blocked out – the right half of the image – that the red blob becomes visible; which scientists say is the disc of gas and dust surrounding the planet.

Needless to say further observations are going to be needed to back up this claim of the red blob being a forming planet but if true what an awesome thing to be seeing.

via Geek.com