The star known as HR 4796 is one of the closest candidates for possible Earth-like planetary satellites.

This animation illustrates the formation of a solar system around a star.

Be sure to visit Dr. Michael Ressler's Mirlin homepage. Mirlin is the camera responsible for taking the above image.

Read about the discovery of new solar systems on the CNN website. Also, check out this news release on the JPL website. You can view a 4.3 megabyte quicktime movie of the animation as JPL's Mike Werner narrates. Mike was a co-discoverer of HR 4796 shown above. A smaller 1.4 megabyte version can be downloaded here.

Here's the entire 23 minute NASA news conference. Other articles can be found at MSNBC and ABC News.

These images were also featured in the May 4, 1998 issue of Newsweek Magazine.