Two Planets Found Forming in Disc around Young Star WISPIT 2 in Aquila | ESO

Two Planets Found Forming in Disc around Young Star WISPIT 2 in Aquila | ESO

These images, taken with European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) shows a planetary system being born around the young star WISPIT 2. The star is surrounded by a disc of gas and dust––the raw material that planets form and grow from. In 2025 a team of astronomers detected a young planet, called WISPIT 2b, carving out a gap in the disc around the star. Now the same team has confirmed the presence of a second planet, WISPIT 2c, orbiting even closer to the star, as shown in the inset.

Both planets are gas giants, similar to Jupiter. WISPIT 2b is almost five times as massive as Jupiter, and orbits the star at a distance 60 times larger than the separation between Earth and the Sun. WISPIT 2c is twice as massive as 2b and orbits the star four times closer. 

The images shown here were taken with the SPHERE instrument at the VLT. SPHERE can correct the blur caused by atmospheric turbulence, as well as block the light of the central star, revealing the faint disc and planets around it in great detail. Another instrument, GRAVITY+ on the VLT Interferometer, was also used in the discovery, helping confirm the planetary nature of the observed object. 

This image shows two planets being born around the young star WISPIT 2. These observations were made with the SPHERE instrument at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). SPHERE can directly image exoplanets by correcting atmospheric turbulence and blocking the light from the central star. 

This composite image contains SPHERE observations carried out at distinct times. The outermost planet, WISPIT 2b, was discovered first, whereas WISPIT 2c, orbiting much closer to the star, was confirmed afterwards.

This image shows two planets forming around the young star WISPIT 2. The images at the top were obtained with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) using the SPHERE instrument, specifically designed to directly image exoplanets. Planet WISPIT 2b was discovered in 2025, with hints of another one, WISPIT 2c, orbiting closer to the star. 

To confirm that this new object is indeed a planet and not an extended clump of material within the disc, astronomers observed it with the GRAVITY+ instrument at the VLT Interferometer (VLTI). The VLTI combines the light of several telescopes and is therefore sensitive to very small details. Using GRAVITY+, the team confirmed that that the new object is a point-like source and not an extended cloud within the disc. 

Moreover, the spectrum obtained with GRAVITY+, displayed here in the bottom panel, shows light absorbed by carbon monoxide, a molecule common in the atmosphere of gas giant planets. This further confirms that WISPIT 2c is indeed a young exoplanet around this star. 

This chart shows the location of the young star WISPIT 2 in the constellation Aquila. This map shows most of the stars visible to the unaided eye under good conditions. The location of the star is marked with a red circle.

A Solar System in the making? 

Astronomers have observed two planets forming in the disc around a young star named WISPIT 2. Having previously detected one planet, the team have now employed European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes to confirm the presence of another. These observations, and the unique structure of the disc around the star, indicate that the WISPIT 2 system could resemble a young Solar System.

Distance from Earth: ~430 light years

“WISPIT 2 is the best look into our own past that we have to date,” says Chloe Lawlor, PhD student at the University of Galway, Ireland, and lead author of the study published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.  

The system is only the second known, after PDS 70, where two planets have been directly observed in the process of forming around their host star. Unlike PDS 70, however, WISPIT 2 has a very extended planet-forming disc with distinctive gaps and rings. "These structures suggest that more planets are currently forming, which we will eventually detect,” Lawlor says. 

"WISPIT 2 gives us a critical laboratory not just to observe the formation of a single planet but an entire planetary system," says Christian Ginski, study co-author and researcher at the University of Galway. With such observations, astronomers aim to better understand how baby planetary systems develop into mature ones, like our own. 

The first newborn planet found in the system—named WISPIT 2b—was detected last year with a mass almost five times that of Jupiter and orbiting the central star at around 60 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. “This detection of a new world in formation really showed the amazing potential of our current instrumentation,” said Richelle van Capelleveen, PhD student at Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands, and leader of the previous study. After an additional object was identified near the star [1], measurements made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) confirmed its planetary nature. The new planet—WISPIT 2c—is four times closer to the central star and is twice as massive as WISPIT 2b. Both planets are gas giants, like the outer planets in our Solar System. 

To confirm the existence of WISPIT 2c the team employed the SPHERE instrument on ESO's VLT to capture an image of the object. The team then used the GRAVITY+ instrument on the VLTI to confirm that the object was indeed a planet. "Critically our study made use of the recent upgrade to GRAVITY+ without which we would not have been able to get such a clear detection of the planet so close to its star," says Guillaume Bourdarot, study co-author and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany. 

Both planets in WISPIT 2 appear in clear gaps within the disc of dust and gas circling the young star. These gaps result from each planet's development. Particles in the disc accumulate, their gravity pulling in more material until an embryo planet forms. The remaining material, around each gap, creates distinctive dust rings in the disc. 

Besides the gaps that the two planets were found in, there is at least one smaller gap farther out in the WISPIT 2 disc. "We suspect there may be a third planet carving out this gap" says Lawlor, "potentially of Saturn mass owing to the gap’s being much narrower and shallower". The team are eager to make follow-up observations, with Ginski noting that “with ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, we may be able to directly image such a planet.” 

Notes: [1] The first hints of the presence of a second planet came from observations made with the University of Arizona's MagAO-X on the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes in Chile and the University of Virginia's LMIRcam on the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer in the USA.  

Image Credits: ESO/C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al., IAU and Sky & Telescope
Release Date: March 24, 2026

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Planets #Exoplanets #WISPIT2b #WISPIT2c #AquilaConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #SPHERE #GRAVITYPlus #VLTI #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education