In a scene thought similar to the early years of our own Solar System , ever larger rocks are growing by colliding and accreting dust as the messy business of planet formation appears to be underway. For an Earth-like planet in such a hostile environment, the sky would be lit continuously with streaking meteors and the ground would rumble continuously with impacts . Pictured above , the swirling disk of dust , gas, and rocks of HD 100546 is visible as the dark region surrounding the image center. HD 100546 is visible with binoculars towards the southern constellation of Musca , and is a relatively nearby 335 light-years away. Similar planet-building systems, dubbed proplyds , have recently been found in Orion , where many emerging planets there must survive the boiling radiations of neighboring bright stars .
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