{"id":182298,"date":"2025-08-28T11:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/182298\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:31:10","slug":"astronomers-spot-growing-protoplanet-in-disk-gap-around-young-solar-analog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/182298\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers Spot Growing Protoplanet in Disk Gap around Young Solar Analog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using the SPHERE instrument on ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have directly imaged a 4.9-Jupiter-mass protoplanet in a cleared gap of a multi-ringed protoplanetary disk around WISPIT 2<\/a> (TYC 5709-354-1), a 5-million-year-old solar analog located 133 parsecs (434 light-years) on the constellation of Aquila.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

This image, taken with ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope, is the first clear detection of a protoplanet in a disk with multiple rings. Image credit: ESO \/ van Capelleveen et al.<\/p>\n

Protoplanetary disks<\/a> surround young stars and appear as disk-shaped structures of gas and dust, often with rings.<\/p>\n

They are the birthplace of planets, and the rings are thought to indicate the presence of (hungry) planets in the disk.<\/p>\n

Initially, little particles in the spinning disk begin to accumulate and grow as gravity takes over, stealing more material from the native disk until they evolve into embryo planets.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscovering this planet, WISPIT 2b, was an amazing experience \u2014 we were incredibly lucky,\u201d said Dr. Richelle van Capelleveen, an astronomer at Leiden Observatory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWISPIT 2, a young version of our Sun, is located in a little-studied group of young stars, and we did not expect to find such a spectacular system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis system will likely be a benchmark for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used these really short snapshot observations of many young stars \u2014 only a few minutes per object \u2014 to determine if we could see a little dot of light next to them that is caused by a planet,\u201d said Dr. Christian Ginski, a researcher at the University of Galway.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, in the case of this star, we instead detected a completely unexpected and exceptionally beautiful multi-ringed dust disk.\u201d<\/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<\/p>\n

The astronomers captured<\/a> a spectacular clear image of WISPIT 2b embedded in a disk gap and confirmed that the planet is orbiting its host star.<\/p>\n

\u201cWISPIT 2b is the first unambiguous planet detection in a multi-ringed disk, making it the ideal laboratory to study planet-disk interaction and subsequent evolution,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

WISPIT 2b was captured in near infrared light as it is still glowing and hot after its initial formation phase.<\/p>\n

The planet was also detected<\/a> in visible light using the MagAO-X AO system on the 6.5-m Magellan telescope and the LMIRcam instrument on the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI).<\/p>\n

This detection at a specific wavelength or color of light indicates that the planet is still actively accreting gas as it is forming its atmosphere.<\/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,\u201d said Chloe Lawlor, a Ph.D. student at the University of Galway.<\/p>\n

According to the team, the disk around WISPIT 2b has a radius of 380 AU (astronomical units) \u2014 about 380 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cWISPIT 2b is a remarkable discovery,\u201d said Jake Byrne, a M.Sc. student at the University of Galway.<\/p>\n

The results appear in two papers in the Astrophysical Journal Letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Richelle F. van Capelleveen et al. 2025. WIde Separation Planets In Time (WISPIT): A Gap-clearing Planet in a Multi-ringed Disk around the Young Solar-type Star WISPIT 2. ApJL 990, L8; doi: 10.3847\/2041-8213\/adf721<\/p>\n

Laird M. Close et al. 2025. Wide Separation Planets in Time (WISPIT): Discovery of a Gap H\u03b1 Protoplanet WISPIT 2b with MagAO-X. ApJL 990, L9; doi: 10.3847\/2041-8213\/adf7a5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Using the SPHERE instrument on ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have directly imaged a 4.9-Jupiter-mass protoplanet in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":182299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[48143,14826,102673,73314,159,102674,783,83429,581,102675,67,132,68,48151,102676,102677],"class_list":{"0":"post-182298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-eso","9":"tag-exoplanet","10":"tag-protoplanet","11":"tag-protoplanetary-disk","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-solar-type-star","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-sphere","16":"tag-star","17":"tag-sun-like-star","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-vlt","22":"tag-wispit-2","23":"tag-wispit-2b"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115106171014264487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}