Astronomers are now directly observing and witnessing how planets are being born, for the first time ever, where scientists have captured a gas giant exoplanet that is in the process of forming around a young star known as LkCa 15, some 450 light years away.

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According to co-lead author of the study, Kate Follette from the Stanford University, this is really exciting, as these are the first captured images of planets that are forming directly. This evidence can provide an opportunity to monitor a system in the future and to gain a better understanding of how planets are created.

The star system of the LkCa 15 contains a large disk made from interstellar dust and gas that are enshrouding this young star, similar to our sun, which is only 2 million years old. These circumstellar disks usually encircle newborn stars, which are actually raw stellar material that are used to form planets.

Prior studies already detected these large gaps in these disks which indicate new worlds that are in the process of clearing out. These disks can also contain heat signatures that suggest evidence of exoplanets inside these gaps.

In LkCa 15's disk, there's a gap inside and also, a giant protoplanet candidate called LkCa 15b that was identified in 2012, with a distance of 16 astronomical units from its star. One astronomical unit equals to the distance of Earth from the sun or, 93 million miles.

In this new study, the team identified and confirmed LkCA 15b by imaging it via hydrogen alpha photons which is a type of light that emits superheated material from the accretion process of a new world.

Apart from LkCA 15b, observations also reveal the presence of other exoplanets, which are LkCA 15c inside this gap and another one called LkCA 15d. Follette confirms that this is the first time ever that evidence links a forming planet to a gap inside a protoplanetary disk.

This new study is published in the journal Nature. 

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