Astronomers have observed two planets forming around a distant infant star, thus discovering a planetary system that offers us a look at the appearance of the solar system over 4 billion years ago.

The infant star in question is named WISPIT 2, and it's located around 437 light-years away with an estimated age of around 5.4 million years old. If that makes this star sound anything but an infant, consider that our middle-aged star, the sun, is 4.6 billion years old.

WISPIT 2 is surrounded by a donut-shaped cloud of gas and dust called a protoplanetary disk in which scientists have now detected two planets, designated WISPIT 2b and WISPIT 2c. And excitingly, there are structural hints with WISPIT 2's protoplanetary disk of more forming protoplanets.

"WISPIT 2 gives us a critical laboratory not just to observe the formation of a single planet but an entire planetary system," Christian Ginski of the University of Galway said in the special statement.

At least one more planet is indicated in the system by a less-pronounced gap —further out from the system's central star than WISPIT 2b sits. The team hopes this third planet will be visible with the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in the Atacama Desert region of northern Chile.

Source: The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Image: ESO/C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al.