Astronomers have directly observed a planet in the act of forming around a youthful analogue of the Sun, offering a rare look at how giant worlds assemble.

It may sound like the plot of a sci-fi film reaching a black hole with a spacecraft, but it turns out that the idea may not be that outlandish.

Astronomers have detected complex organic molecules in a disc of gas and dust surrounding a young star. - This discovery raises a fascinating possibility: the building blocks of life might have formed in space long before planets like Earth even existed.