One of the most popular areas of astronomy right now is the search for earth-like planets. The definition of "earth-like" varies, but it basically means either something our size or a planet at the right distance from its star to have liquid water, an essential for life.
A star about 424 light years away (amazingly close, by astronomical standards), has a planet in the early stages of development at just the right radius to someday have liquid water. It will take millions of years before the planet is fully formed, another few billion before simple organisms appear, and another couple billion after that before complex organisms appear, but it's exciting to see that it is happening.
One of the goals is to find these earth-like developing planets at various stages in their development so as to better gauge what kind of planet is most likely to contain life. These sorts of observations are happening or being studied all the time, so it's easy to find information on this type of thing. The article for this particular planet can be found at:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2050880.htm?space
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