LkCa 15 is a young pre-main-sequence star (i.e. a star in its formation phase) surrounded by a protoplanetary disk of dust and rocky debris from which it accretes matter. The star is located in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region at a distance of 450 light-years from Earth, it has a mass that is about 97% of the Sun and is slightly cooler than the Sun, with a photospheric temperature of ~ 4400 K. The disk hosts LkCa 15b, an alien planet in orbit around the parent star LkCa 15. The planet is still in the process of forming, on its way to growing into a world similar to Jupiter. During its orbit around the star, LkCa 15b sweeps up dust and gas from the disk, clearing its orbit. It was thanks to the gap observed in the protoplanetary disk that scientists were able to discover LkCa 15b in 2015, the first of its class of objects.