Astronomers peering through ground- and space-based telescopes have discovered what they believe is the birth of the smallest known solar system. Scientists found a tiny brown dwarf - or failed star - less than one hundredth the mass of the sun surrounded by what appears to be a disk of dust and gas. The brown dwarf - located 500 light years away in the constellation Chamaeleon - appears to be undergoing a planet-forming process that could one day yield a miniature solar system, said Kevin Luhman of Penn State University, who led the discovery.