{"id":24088,"date":"2025-08-26T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24088\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T10:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:30:08","slug":"irish-astronomers-involved-in-remarkable-discovery-of-new-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24088\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish astronomers involved in ‘remarkable discovery’ of new planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

The unexpected detection of a new planet has been hailed as a \u201cremarkable discovery\u201d by Irish astronomers who were involved in its identification.<\/p>\n

The newly spotted planet, named WISPIT 2b, is estimated to be about five million years old and most likely a gas giant of similar size to Jupiter.<\/p>\n

It was detected by an international team, co-led by researchers at University of Galway, at an early stage of formation around a young star which shares similarities with our own Sun.<\/p>\n

A study on the planet, which was led by Leiden University, the University of Galway and the University of Arizona, has been published in the international journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.<\/p>\n

WISPIT 2b is about 430 light years away.<\/p>\n

While not visible to the naked eye, curious stargazers may be interested to know it is lurking in the direction of the constellation Aquila, the eagle.<\/p>\n

The groundbreaking discovery was made using one of the world\u2019s most advanced observatories: the European Southern Observatory\u2019s Very Large Telescope (ESO\u2019s VLT) in the Atacama Desert in Chile.<\/p>\n

\"TheseThese observations were taken with the ESO Very Large Telescope in near-infrared light. Picture: C. Ginski\/R. van Capelleveen et al\/PA Wire\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Christian Ginski, lecturer at the School of Natural Sciences, University of Galway and second author of the study, said: \u201cWe used these really short snapshot observations of many young stars \u2013 only a few minutes per object \u2013 to determine if we could see a little dot of light next to them that is caused by a planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, in the case of this star, we instead detected a completely unexpected and exceptionally beautiful multi-ringed dust disk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we saw this multi-ringed disk for the first time, we knew we had to try and see if we could detect a planet within it, so we quickly asked for follow-up observations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is only the second time a confirmed planet has been detected at this early evolutionary stage around a young version of our Sun. The first one was discovered in 2018, by a research team also involving Dr Ginski.<\/p>\n

The planet was captured in near infrared light \u2013 the type of view that someone would see when using night-vision goggles \u2013 as it is still glowing and hot after its initial formation phase.<\/p>\n

The team at Leiden University and the University of Galway captured a spectacular clear image of the young proto-planet embedded in a disk gap.<\/p>\n

They also confirmed that the planet is orbiting its host star.<\/p>\n

The planet was further detected in visible light by a team from the University of Arizona using a specially designed instrument, with those findings indicating that the planet is still actively accreting gas as it is forming its atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Dust and gas-rich disks around young stars are the birth cradles of planets.<\/p>\n

They can look quite spectacular with many different structures such as rings and spiral arms, which researchers believe are related to planets forming within them.<\/p>\n

The disk around WISPIT 2b has a radius of 380 astronomical units \u2013 about 380 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.<\/p>\n

The study was led by an early career PhD student, Richelle van Capelleveen, from Leiden University, and co-led by a graduate student team at the University of Galway.<\/p>\n

\"UndatedUndated handout photo issued by the University of Galway of a newborn planet eating its way through its dusty cradle as it orbits its host star. Picture: ESO\/R. van Capelleveen et al\/PA Wire<\/p>\n

The research findings were co-authored by Dr Ginski and three physics graduate students who are specialising in astrophysics at the University of Galway.<\/p>\n

Ms van Capelleveen said: \u201cDiscovering this planet was an amazing experience \u2013 we were incredibly lucky.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chloe Lawlor, a PhD student in physics with a specialisation in astrophysics at the University of Galway, said: \u201cI feel incredibly fortunate to be involved in such an exciting and potentially career-defining discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWISPIT 2b, with its position within its birth disk, is a beautiful example of a planet that can be used to explore current planet formation models. I am certain this will become a landmark paper, owing particularly to the work of Richelle van Capelleveen and her exceptional team.\u201d Jake Byrne, an MSc student at University of Galway, said he \u201ccould hardly believe it was a real detection\u201d when he first saw the image of the \u201cremarkable discovery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big one \u2013 that\u2019s sure to spark discussion within the research community and advance our understanding of planet formation.\u201d Dan McLachlan, also an MSc student at the institution, said: \u201cIt was such a mind-blowing thing to be a part of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so well treated by the University of Galway physics department and especially my supervisor Dr Christian Ginski to have provided me with the opportunity to be part of such an exciting project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The unexpected detection of a new planet has been hailed as a \u201cremarkable discovery\u201d by Irish astronomers who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[4488,18,19,17,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-24088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-irish-examiner-instagram","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}