Astronomers have discovered for the first time a “baby planet” hidden in a ring around a forming star. WISPIT 2b is a young protoplanet located in a ring of the sky. This gas giant has five times the mass of Jupiter, is located 437 light-years from Earth, and is only 5 million years old.
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The protoplanetary disk surrounding the star WISPIT 2 contains gas and dust, the essential elements for the formation of planets. This disk has an empty ring-shaped space where WISPIT 2b was discovered. Scientists believe that these spaces are created by the growing planet itself.
Image from the WISPIT 2 system shows protoplanet WISPIT 2b (purple dot) next to a ring of stardust
The discovery of WISPIT 2b was made using the MagAO-X system, a high-contrast imager aboard the Magellan 2 telescope in Chile. The instrument took actual photos of protoplanets emitting H-alpha light, which occurs when hydrogen from the disk falls onto the forming planet.
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