It shows a long thin nebula pointing toward a faint companion object (bottom left) which could be the first extrasolar planet to be imaged directly. The brightest objects in the image are binary protostars, which illuminate an extended cloud of gas and dust from which the stars formed. So much dust surrounds these protostars that they are virtually invisible at optical wavelengths. However, near-infrared light penetrates dust, revealing the newborn stars within.

At lower left there is a point of light many times fainter than the binary pair. Current models predict that very young giant planets are warm from gravitational contraction and formation processes with temperatures as high as a few thousand degrees Fahrenheit. This is consistent with the observed brightness of the companion. The candidate protoplanet appears to be 130 billion miles from the binary (1400 times the Earth's distance from the Sun). The bright streak of nebulosity may indicate that it was ejected from the system.