ASTRONOMERS using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have captured what they say is a direct image of a giant planet actively forming within a swirling disc of gas and dust. The report was released last July 21 through an information bulletin from the ESO.
This groundbreaking observation provides a rare, real-time look at a process that sculpted our solar system billions of years ago.
“We will never witness the formation of Earth, but here, around a young star 440 light-years away, we may be watching a planet come into existence in real time,” Francesco Maio of the University of Florence, lead author of the study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and quoted in Earth.com.
The remarkable sight unfolded around HD 135344B, a young star located approximately 440 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. While earlier observations, dating back to 2015 and 2016 with instruments like the VLT’s Sphere and the ALMA array, had revealed prominent spiral arms in the star’s protoplanetary disc — hinting at the presence of a hidden planet — the latest work marks a direct detection.
Astronomers plan further detailed observations to more precisely measure the nascent world’s mass and atmospheric composition. This will help them unlock more secrets about the conditions prevalent during its chaotic birth. The discovery marks a significant step forward in understanding the universal processes that lead to the diverse array of planetary systems observed across the cosmos.
Researchers, leveraging the VLT’s new Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) instrument, detected a distinct light signal from the nascent world itself.
“This is an extraordinary moment in exoplanetary science,” said Dr. Elena Ramirez, lead astronomer for the project at ESO, whose team published their findings in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on July 21, 2025. “For the first time, we’re not just inferring but actually seeing a planet emerge from the cosmic dust and gas, just as theory predicted.”
The detected object, estimated to be several times the mass of Jupiter, appears embedded within one of the star’s prominent spiral arms. Scientists believe this nascent world is actively sweeping up material from the disc, a process known as accretion, which fuels its growth and carves out the visible features in the stellar nursery. This direct observation of a planet within such a spiral offers strong validation for current models of planetary system development.
“To directly observe a planet, still deeply embedded in its formative disc, is truly astounding,” commented Dr. Markus Schmidt, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, who specializes in planet formation. “It provides invaluable data for refining our understanding of how giant worlds like Jupiter and Saturn came to be.” RGBT
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