Astronomers have captured a rare image of a young giant planet, WISPIT 2b, forming within the ring-shaped gap of the WISPIT 2 star system. Estimated to be five million years old and five times the mass of Jupiter, the planet offers direct evidence supporting theories of planet formation in protoplanetary disks.
“When a new star is forming, it is usually surrounded by a disk called a protoplanetary disk,” the research team said. “Theorists believe that young planets exist in this disk and are responsible for the gaps as they pull in gas and dust to support their growth.”
Led by Laird Close of the University of Arizona and Richelle van Capelleveen of Leiden Observatory, the team used the MagAO-X system to detect the planet in H-alpha light and confirmed it through infrared imaging with the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI).
In the resulting image, WISPIT 2b appears as a small purple dot beside its host star. Researchers also spotted a possible second planet within another gap, though further study is needed to confirm its existence.
Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on August 26, the discovery provides new insight into the early stages of planetary formation and the processes shaping young solar systems.
Source: NASA