Young Sun found with spiral arms - about to give birth to planets

This image, acquired by the Subaru Telescope and its HiCIAO instrument,
is the first to show spiral arms in a circumstellar disk.
The disk itself is some 14 billion miles across,
or about twice the size of Pluto's orbit in our own solar system.

Galaxies with spiral arms is old news but this is the first time a single star has been found with them.  The short-lived phase is believed to be where planets form quickly from clumping in the trails of dust and gas.  The young star SAO 206462 in the constellation Lupus is estimated to be a mere nine million years old compared to the 4.5 billion age of our own sun.
(Science Daily News)