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last mo.

Astronomers Directly Image a Forming Giant Planet Inside a Multi‑Ring Disk Gap

Dual‑wavelength imaging reveals the newborn world is still gathering gas.

In this artist's illustration, infalling hydrogen gas causes the growing protoplanet WISPIT 2b to shine brightly in the hydrogen alpha spectrum, to which the MagAO-X instrument is particularly sensitive. (Credit: Joseph Olmsted/STScI/NASA)
Initially, we see a disk of dust encircling a young star. The small dot of light (to lower right) is the newborn planet. Researchers think it’s similar to Jupiter, but more massive. This image proves that newly formed planets can create gaps within the disk that formed them. The image was taken by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in near-infrared light. Credit: ESO/R. F. van Capelleveen et al.

Overview

  • WISPIT 2b orbits the young Sun-like star WISPIT 2 in the constellation Aquila and is estimated to be about 5 million years old.
  • The discovery, reported in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, comes from the WISPIT project led by researchers at Leiden University, the University of Galway, and the University of Arizona.
  • ESO’s Very Large Telescope captured a striking multi‑ringed dust disk and a point source within a dark gap consistent with a giant planet.
  • Near‑infrared images from VLT and a visible‑light detection by a University of Arizona instrument confirmed the source at two wavelengths.
  • Researchers describe this as the first unambiguous planet found within a multi‑ringed disk and only the second confirmed so early around a young Sun‑like star.