The astronomers observed hot minerals just beginning to solidify – the first specks of planet-forming material, the astronomers said. A gaseous disk surrounding the young star is the first stages of the assembly process to form a new planetary system, according to the paper.

While astronomers have previously seen young discs that contain newborn, massive, Jupiter-like planets, McClure says, “we’ve always known that the first solid parts of planets, or planetesimals, must form further back in time, at earlier stages.”

Data captured by the ALMA telescope in Chile and the James Webb Space Telescope showed planets forming around a star in the first record of its kind.