Astronomers have captured the clearest view yet of a planet being born, watching gas swirl around a young giant 430 light-years from Earth.

New observations from the ALMA telescope array show streams of gas interacting with WISPIT 2b, a planet about 4.9 times the mass of Jupiter orbiting its star at 57 times the Earth-Sun distance.

The images, described in a paper posted to arXiv, reveal the raw material of planet formation in action. Scientists say the gas flows could be feeding the planet as it grows.

The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy highlighted the findings, noting that such direct views of formation are rare. Most known exoplanets are detected indirectly, through their gravitational tug on stars.

WISPIT 2b sits in a young system, giving researchers a snapshot of what our own solar system’s giant planets may have looked like billions of years ago.