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An amazing pair of images taken 18 years apart has enabled astronomers to watch a huge star form in real-time.

The images reveal that the star is forming in a dense, gaseous environment surrounded by dust shaped like a doughnut.

The dramatic changes, in a cosmic blink of an eye relative to the age of the universe, is giving an unprecedented look at how young 'protostars' develop into fully-fledged stars.

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Astronomers have used a telescope in New Mexico to watch a star take shape over eight years. This simulation shows how the outflow of material from the star has dramatically expanded as it takes shape. An simualted image from 1996 is on the left, and another from 2014 is on the right

Given the name W75N(B)-VLA2, the star was first observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico in 1996.

And in 2014, an international team of astronomers led by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) again imaged the star, which is 4,200 light-years from Earth.

The latest image shows that hot, ionised wind first spotted being ejected 18 years ago is being deformed into a stretched 'outflow' of material.

Their observations were published in the journal Science.

'The comparison is remarkable,' said Dr Carlos Carrasco-Gonzalez of the Center of Radioastronomy and Astrophysics at UNAM, leader of the research team.

'We're seeing this dramatic change in real time, so this object is providing us an exciting opportunity to watch over the next few years as a very young star goes through the early stages of its formation.'

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These actual images of the star were taken by the��Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico. On the left is the star as seen in 1996, with its dust wrapped tightly around it, while by 2014 in the image on the right, this outflow has been pushed out into an elongated shape

This artist's illustration shows the development of W75N(B)-VLA-2. On the left, a hot wind from the young star expands nearly spherically, as seen in 1996. On the right right, as seen in 2014, the hot wind has been shaped by encountering a dusty, doughnut-shaped torus around the star and appears elongated

The infant star is already 300 times brighter than the sun and eight times more massive, and studying it could reveal crucial aspects of how huge stars like this form.

Interestingly, the outflow from the star seems to be aligned with its magnetic field - suggesting magnetism plays a key role in this star's formation.

The team will now continue to observe the star and see how it develops over the next few years.

'Our understanding of how massive young stars develop is much less complete than our understanding of how sun-like stars develop,' Dr Carrasco-Gonzalez said.

'It's going to be really great to be able to watch one as it changes. We expect to learn a lot from this object.'

Given the name W75N(B)-VLA2, the star was first observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico (shown) in 1996. It was imaged by the same telescope array again in 2014. The team will now continue to observe the star and see how it develops over the next few years