This image shows two planets being born around the young star WISPIT 2. These observations were made with the SPHERE instrument at ESO’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 different epochs. The outermost planet, WISPIT 2b, was discovered first, whereas WISPIT 2c, which orbits much closer to the star, was confirmed afterwards. Credit: ESO/ C Lawlor, RF van Capelleveen et al.
Astronomers believe two planets spotted forming in disc around young star could be a Solar System in the making.
The two planets are 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.
Lead author of the study, Chloe Lawlor, who is a PhD student at the University of Galway, Ireland, said: “WISPIT 2 is the best look into our own past that we have to date.”
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.
Lawlor said: “These structures suggest that more planets are currently forming, which we will eventually detect.”
Christian Ginski, study co-author and researcher at the University of Galway, said: “WISPIT 2 gives us a critical laboratory not just to observe the formation of a single planet but an entire planetary system.”
With such observations, astronomers aim to better understand how baby planetary systems develop into mature ones, like our own.
This image shows two planets forming around the young star WISPIT 2. The images at the top were obtained with ESO’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. Credit: ESO/ C Lawlor, RF van Capelleveen et al.
Gas giants
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.
Richelle van Capelleveen, a PhD student at Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands, and leader of the previous study, said: “This detection of a new world in formation really showed the amazing potential of our current instrumentation.”
After an additional object was identified near the star, 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, which captured an image of the object.
The team then used the GRAVITY+ instrument on the VLTI to confirm that the object was indeed a planet.
Study co-author Guillaume Bourdarot, who is a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany, said: “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.”
A third planet?
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.
Lawlor said: “We suspect there may be a third planet carving out this gap, 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: “With ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, we may be able to directly image such a planet.”
The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
