Get ready for some mind-blowing astrophysics! Astronomers have unearthed a game-changer: the first-ever planet-forming disc discovered outside our Milky Way galaxy. This swirling reservoir of dust and gas, located around a young star in the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud, suggests planets may be much more common than we ever imagined. What's the Big Deal? Our own solar system formed from a disc like this one billions of years ago. Tiny particles within the disc collided and clumped together, eventually giving rise to the planets, moons, and asteroids we see today. Finding a similar disc around a young star in another galaxy hints that this planet-building process might be universal. So, Alien Planets Next Door? The newly discovered disc doesn't guarantee there are already planets around this star, called HH 1177. However, it creates the perfect environment for them to form. The swirling disc provides the raw materials – dust and gas – that can clump together over millions...
“The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can't imagine”