First alien moons are spotted in the act of being born

A dusty circle surrounding a planet 370 light-years away from Earth could show the birth of a moon for the very first time.

Pictures from the ALMA observatory in Chile shows a faint red disk of dust circling a planet which orbits the star PDS 70.

Scientists say the never-before-seen disk is a similar structure to the one which birthed the many moons of Jupiter.

Recently, researchers discovered two planets - PDS 70c and PDS 70b - which orbit the young star PDS 70.

And now they have found evidence of a dust-filled disk, known as a circumplanetary disk, around PDS 70c which could start to form multiple moons.

Astronomer at Rice University in Houston, Texas, Andrea Isella told Science Daily: 'Planets form from disks of gas and dust around newly forming stars, and if a planet is large enough, it can form its own disk as it gathers material in its orbit around the star.

'Jupiter and its moons are a little planetary system within our solar system, for example, and it's believed Jupiter's moons formed from a circumplanetary disk when Jupiter was very young.