Planet Building in HD 100546 . ... NOAO , NASA/GSFC ), CTIO , ESO , NSF Explanation: More than 100 billion boulders may be swarming in the disk around nearby star HD 100546 . In a scene thought similar to the early years of our own Solar System , ever larger rocks are growing by colliding and accreting dust as the messy business of planet formation appears to be underway. ... The bright light and six-pointed diffraction spikes from the central star have been removed from the false-color image. ...