“We’re seeing a system that looks like what our Solar System looked like when it was just beginning to form,” van ‘t Hoff added. In our own solar system, the very first solid material to condense near Earth’s present location can be found locked within ancient meteorites. Using these primordial rocks, astronomers can estimate their age and determine when our own solar system started to form. “This system is one of the best that we know to actually probe some of the processes that happened in our Solar System,” said van ‘t Hoff. “It suggests that HOPS-315 can be used to understand how our own Solar System formed.