Much progress has been made during the past decade in observations of interstellar clouds of gas and dust and of the formation of new stars that takes place in cold, dense clumps in many of these clouds. The question that is unanswered is "Do any of these currently forming stars acquire planetary systems similar to our own?" The question is unanswered because up to now observers lacked the angular resolution to detect planets or planetary precursor object across interstellar distances. The Principal Investigator proposes to overcome this difficulty by using lunar occultations of star forming regions, which he thinks will increase the angular resolution sufficiently to allow him to observe planetary systems in the making.
