What did the Sun look like before there were planets? A prototype laboratory for the formation of low mass stars like our Sun is the T Tauri system [ http://etacha.as.ar…], one of the brighter star systems toward the constellation [ http://www.physics.…] of Taurus [ http://www.astronom…]. In young systems [ http://heasarc.gsfc…], gravity causes a gas cloud [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] to condense. The situation then usually becomes quite complex, as some of the infalling gas is heated so much by collisions that it is immediately expelled as an outgoing wind [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Complex geometries including jets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and disks [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] form as the infalling and outflowing gas collide and interact with a changing magnetic field [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Pictured above [ http://www.cfht.haw…] is a false-color image of the T Tauri system itself, which turns out to be a binary [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. In a few million years [ http://www.go.ednet…], the central condensate will likely become hot enough to ignite nuclear fusion [ http://fusedweb.ppp…], by which time much of the surrounding circumstellar material will either have fallen in or have been driven off by the stellar wind [ http://www-istp.gsf…]. At that time, a new star [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] will shine.