Astronomers have captured an extraordinary image of a young planet forming around a star about 430 light-years from Earth. The planet, named WISPIT 2b, is a gas giant roughly the size of Jupiter and just 5 million years old—a cosmic newborn compared to our 4.6-billion-year-old solar system.
The planet is actively accreting material while carving a channel through the protoplanetary disc of gas and dust surrounding its host star, WISPIT 2. This marks the first confirmed discovery of a planet within a multi-ringed protoplanetary disc, complete with several gaps and channels.
WISPIT 2b is also only the second young planet confirmed to orbit a star similar to a young Sun. It was observed using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The system’s protoplanetary disc spans a vast region—about 380 times the Earth-Sun distance—making it a unique laboratory for studying how planets and discs evolve.
“Discovering this planet was an amazing experience—we were incredibly lucky,” said Richelle van Capelleveen of Leiden University, who led the research. “WISPIT 2, a young version of our Sun, sits in a little-studied group of stars, and we did not expect to find such a spectacular system. This system will likely be a benchmark for years to come.”
The team used infrared imaging to spot WISPIT 2b within the disc’s gap, aiming to learn whether gas giants on wide orbits are more common around young or older stars.
“We used really short snapshot observations of many young stars—just a few minutes each—to see if we could detect a tiny dot of light caused by a planet,” explained Christian Ginski of the University of Galway. “Instead, we discovered a beautiful multi-ringed dust disc around this star. Once we saw it, we immediately requested follow-up observations.”
WISPIT 2b was later photographed in optical light by a University of Arizona team, confirming that it continues to accumulate material.
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“Capturing an image of forming planets has proven extremely challenging,” Ginski added. “It gives us a real chance to understand why the thousands of older exoplanet systems out there look so diverse compared to our solar system. I think many colleagues in planet formation will study this system closely in the years to come.”
He noted that the work also showcases the next generation of astrophysicists: “This will be the first of many breakthroughs.”
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