Astronomers capture first direct image of protoplanet Wispit 2b
- Astronomers have captured the first direct image of a protoplanet swirling within a surrounding ball of gas and dust, roughly 430 light-years from Earth.
- The observations were detailed in a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, highlighting data collected by the ALMA observatory.
- Directly imaging planetary objects has advanced significantly over the past decade, primarily through techniques that block out the intense glare of host stars to reveal exoplanets.
Astronomers have captured the first direct image of a protoplanet swirling within a surrounding ball of gas and dust, roughly 430 light-years from Earth. The discovery centers on the protoplanet WISPIT 2b, which has an estimated mass about five times that of Jupiter and was imaged using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observatory in northern Chile.
Direct Imaging of the WISPIT 2 System
The observations were detailed in a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, highlighting data collected by the ALMA observatory. WISPIT 2b is located about 57 astronomical units from its host star, while a companion protoplanet named WISPIT 2c orbits further inside at 15 astronomical units. Researchers estimate that WISPIT 2c is between 8 and 12 times as massive as Jupiter. While the discovery of WISPIT 2b was announced in August 2025, findings regarding the interior companion WISPIT 2c followed shortly after in March 2026.
Directly imaging planetary objects has advanced significantly over the past decade, primarily through techniques that block out the intense glare of host stars to reveal exoplanets. However, capturing protoplanets remains exceptionally difficult because of their much smaller physical size and the obscuring nature of their birth environments. The ALMA facility overcame these challenges by combining data from its 66 radio dishes to produce high-resolution imagery of the WISPIT 2 system.
Shaping Protoplanetary Disks
We clearly see both planets shaping their environment.
Dr. Myriam BenistyDr. Myriam Benisty, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and lead author of the study, noted the distinct physical features carved out by the pair. WISPIT 2c has created a cavity—indicating a total clearing of gas and dust—while WISPIT 2b has formed a gap, which represents a partial decrease in disk material that still leaves enough substance for planetary formation to continue.
Around WISPIT 2b, researchers identified swirls of gas that matched long-standing theoretical predictions.
Dr. Myriam BenistyAround WISPIT 2b, we find swirls of gas that had been predicted by simulations of disk-planet interactions, but never actually seen before. Now there is an image of them!
In the ALMA data, blue and red indicators denote gas moving toward and away from the observation point, providing a clear velocity map of the material accumulating onto the developing planet.
Implications for Planetary Accretion
Planetary formation traditionally begins inside a massive cloud of gas and dust that flattens into a disk. Within this structure, materials ranging in size from tiny pebbles to kilometer-scale objects clump together through accretion to form rocky planets closer to the host star, while more distant planets gather remaining gas, ice, and dust. Until now, scientists relied strictly on computer models to visualize these swirling accretion processes. The direct visual capture of the WISPIT 2 system provides empirical data to study the geological mechanics behind how planets form and evolve.
