Proplyd in the Orion Nebula

Planet formation is a hazardous process. This image shows a dust disc around an embryonic star in the Orion Nebula being hit by a blistering flood of ultraviolet radiation from the region's brightest star. Within such a disc are the seeds of planets. The doomed system looks like a hapless comet, with a wayward tail of gas boiling off the withering, pancake-shaped disc.