NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

UX Tau A

This is an artist's rendition of the one-million-year-old star system called UX Tau A, located approximately 450 light-years away.

Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope showed a gap in the dusty planet-forming disk swirling around the system's central Sun-like star. The gap extends from the equivalent of Mercury to Pluto in our solar system, and is sandwiched between thick inner and outer disks on either side. Astronomers suspect that the gap was carved out by one or more forming planets.