Just... WOW. I did not expect this to happen in my lifetime (and no, I do not expect to die tomorrow either). The Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile has pictured a forming planetary system in a young star surrounded by a complex nebula of hot gas.I still remember the Scientific American article I read some 25 years ago about planet formation simulations, which showed how computer models of planetesimals rotating in a cloud of gas around a star. The planetesimals would pick up matter around as they swept the orbital plane, and in the matter of millions of years acquire a planetary mass and "clean up" the area around. Now we are seeing this before us, in the picture below offered by ALMA.
You can clearly make up streaks of material and voids, the signal of early-stage sweeping. One can predict that this system will end up being composed of a close large-mass planet, an even larger-mass companion a bit further out, two small ones, another big one, and three more outliers. That, unless I am misinterpreting the picture... In any case this fills me with awe and made my day today. If it does not make yours, well - think at it a bit more: you're looking at a picture of another planetary system! No, not in a sci-fi movie, this is for real....
More detail from Wired, where I grabbed the image (and which tweeted it)
