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Astronomers capture breathtaking first look at a planet being born

  • PhD student Chloe Lawlor led a University of Galway research team in discovering WISPIT 2c, a young gas giant estimated at 5 million years old and 10 times the mass of Jupiter.
  • Located 430 light years from Earth, the young star WISPIT 2 hosts this newly discovered world, where the same international team previously imaged the protoplanet WISPIT 2b last year.
  • Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, researchers captured a 'chemical fingerprint' of carbon monoxide gas, confirming the planet's atmospheric composition.
  • As only the second confirmed young multi-planet system, WISPIT 2 provides scientists a rare opportunity to study massive planet formation and compare it to our own solar system.
  • Dr. Christian Ginski and his team have secured observation time on the James Webb Space Telescope to attempt direct imaging of the planet and further study its formation.
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Three teams of astronomers have made use of SPHERE, an advanced instrument for the detection of exoplanets installed in the VLT (Very Large Telescope), at ESO's Paranal Observatory (European Southern Observatory), in order to shed light on the enigmatic evolution of incipient planetary systems. Continue reading...

·Granada, Spain
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A group of scientists detected the process of forming two giant planets around the young star WISPIT 2. This finding represents only the second time in history that this phenomenon is directly observed.The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests that this system functions as a mirror of the past of our own space neighborhood.Experts used the advanced technology of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) to confirm this fa…

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Science Daily broke the news in United States on Tuesday, March 24, 2026.
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