PDS 70 c is a fascinating young exoplanet orbiting the star PDS 70, discovered in 2019 by the European Southern Observatory using the impressive Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument. This planet is a cosmic newborn, still cozy in the dusty disk of material surrounding its star, giving astronomers a rare glimpse into planet formation in action. Thanks to the power of direct imaging, scientists caught this little world in the act of growing, making it a star player in the story of how planets come to be. PDS 70 c orbits within a gap in its star’s protoplanetary disk, making it almost like a celestial toddler still surrounded by its crib of cosmic dust and gas, sparkling in the stellar nursery far beyond our solar system.
