Even though the universe has hundreds of protoplanetary discs, which are the bands of gas and dust encircling newly formed young stars, it has been challenging to observe genuine planetary birth and development in these settings.
Currently, astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have created a novel method to find these elusive newborn planets, along with "smoking gun" proof of a small Neptune or Saturn-like planet hiding in a disc. The Astrophysical Journal Letters today published a description of the findings.