This illustration shows a gap in a protoplanetary disk of dust and gas whirling around the nearby red dwarf star TW Hydrae, which resides 176 light-years away in the constellation Hydra, sometimes called the Sea Serpent. The gap's presence is best explained as due to the effects of a growing, unseen planet that is gravitationally sweeping up material and carving out a lane in the disk, like a snow plow. The gap, which is 1.9 billion miles wide and 7.5 billion miles away from its star, is not completely cleared out. Of the almost 900 planets outside our solar system that have been confirmed to date, this is the first to be found at such a great distance from its star. The Hubble observations were taken on June 17, 2005.