Overview
- The discovery, published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirms a second protoplanet, WISPIT 2c, in the dusty disk around the 5‑million‑year‑old star WISPIT 2.
- Using ESO’s VLT/SPHERE for imaging and the VLTI GRAVITY+ interferometer for spectra, the team combined light from four 8‑meter telescopes to isolate the faint planet close to its star.
- GRAVITY+ captured a K‑band spectrum that shows carbon monoxide absorption near 2.3 microns, a clear atmospheric fingerprint that secures the object’s planetary nature.
- Models based on the spectrum point to a mass of about 8–12 Jupiters, temperatures of roughly 1,500–2,600 K, and an orbit near 14 au, which is four times closer to the star than WISPIT 2b at about 57 au.
- Astrometric checks ruled out a background source and hint at orbital motion, and the disk’s multiple rings plus a slimmer outer gap suggest more planets may be forming, making WISPIT 2 only the second known multi‑planet nursery after PDS 70.