Astronomers have made an exciting discovery: two planets are forming around a young star named WISPIT 2. This star, located about 437 light-years away, is just 5.4 million years old. To put that into perspective, our sun is a much older 4.6 billion years.
WISPIT 2 is surrounded by a protoplanetary disk, a swirling cloud of gas and dust where these planets are taking shape. The planets, called WISPIT 2b and WISPIT 2c, provide a rare glimpse into what our solar system might have looked like billions of years ago. “WISPIT 2 is our best look into the past so far,” said Chloe Lawlor, the lead author from the University of Galway. She mentioned structural signs in the disk that hint at even more planets forming.
This is only the second time scientists have detected two forming planets in a single system. The other known system, PDS 70, doesn’t show the same clear gaps and rings that WISPIT 2 does, providing a unique opportunity to understand how planetary systems develop.
‘WISPIT 2 serves as a critical laboratory for studying the formation of an entire system, not just a single planet,’ noted Christian Ginski, a member of the research team.
WISPIT 2b was the first planet discovered around this star, identified last year. It has a mass about five times that of Jupiter and orbits WISPIT 2 at a distance similar to 60 times the distance between Earth and the sun. WISPIT 2c was soon confirmed as well, orbiting at approximately 15 times that distance, or four times closer to its star than WISPIT 2b.
The team captured images of these planets using advanced instruments on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Guillaume Bourdarot from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics highlighted that without recent upgrades to the VLT, they wouldn’t have been able to detect these planets so effectively.
As WISPIT 2b and WISPIT 2c orbit, their gravity pulls in material from the disk, shaping it further. There’s also a hint of a possible third planet based on a subtle gap in the disk, which might be around the mass of Saturn. The researchers hope to confirm this with the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) being built in northern Chile.
This study sheds light not only on the birth of planets but also on the dynamic processes involved. As technology in astronomy continues to advance, we can expect even more fascinating discoveries about our universe.
The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on March 24.
