Scientists have discovered new evidence that a number of planets are being formed around a star some 335 light years away from Earth.

Carbon monoxide emissions strongly suggest a planet is starting to form and is orbiting around a relatively young star named HD100546, said a team of scientists from around the world led by Sean Brittain, an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Clemson University in South Carolina.

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This prospective planet is the second one that researchers have observed orbiting the star.

The events unfolding around the young star is one of the few times researchers have been able to directly observe a planet being born.

Astronomers will learn more about the formation of solar systems and test their theories from data gathered from this star system, Brittain said.

"This system is very close to Earth relative to other disk systems," he said. "We're able to study it at a level of detail that you can't do with more distant stars. This is the first system where we've been able to do this."

Brittain said that once the team reaches its conclusions, the tools it used could be applied to a bigger population of solar systems that are farther and harder to view.

He said the star is located in the constellation Musca, also called The Fly. This constellation can exclusively be seen from the Southern Hemisphere and is some 30 times brighter and 2.5 times larger than our sun.

Astronomers believe the new planet they've discovered could be an uninhabitable gas giant three times larger that Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

The distance of this gas giant could be the same as that between the sun and Saturn.

TagsStar, planet, Space, Gas giant, Astronomy, Research, Science