WISPIT 2 is one of the youngest and most unusual star systems discovered to date. In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers have directly observed two forming exoplanets orbiting WISPIT 2.
This discovery is one of the very few instances of multiple forming planets being directly observed, allowing astronomers a rare glimpse into the early stages of planet formation—in a sense, the “birth” of a new world.
A Celestial Body of Unknown Nature
WISPIT 2 is a nearby young star, approximately 5 million years old, and can therefore be considered a younger version of the Sun. This star is surrounded by a multi-ringed disk of gas and dust, within which new planets are forming.
In August 2025, a research team discovered a massive protoplanet in this system—WISPIT 2b. This is a growing gas giant, approximately 4.9 times the mass of Jupiter, located 57 AU from its host star, WISPIT 2, about 10 times the distance between the Sun and Jupiter.
This discovery confirms for the first time the phenomenon of a protoplanet hidden within a gap in the disk—a phenomenon long predicted theoretically but never directly observed before.
Furthermore, in the same observation, the research team also discovered another object with an orbit closer to its host star than WISPIT 2b, at a distance of about 15 AU, roughly 1.5 times the distance between the Sun and Saturn. The team has tentatively named it CC1. However, the research team was unable to determine the true nature of CC1 at the time—it could be a massive planet or just a dense, reddish cloud of dust.
The Protoplanet Hidden in Starlight
This discovery spurred a series of follow-up observations, culminating in this new research finding: Now, using the upgraded GRAVITY+ instrument on the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), the research team has confirmed that CC1, which had been hidden near its bright host star, is indeed a protoplanet, and has officially named it WISPIT 2c.
WISPIT 2c has a mass approximately 10 times that of Jupiter. This is one of the largest young planets ever directly described. Although its mass is about twice that of WISPIT 2b, its distance from its host star is only about one-quarter of that of WISPIT 2b. This places it in a region of the disk that is extremely difficult to observe from Earth—detecting its faint signal so close to a bright star is incredibly challenging.
GRAVITY+’s unprecedented sensitivity and resolution allowed researchers to detect the protoplanet’s extremely faint light even when the host star was a thousand times brighter. Specifically, they detected a distinctive chemical signature of carbon monoxide gas in the atmosphere of this protoplanet, a key indicator of a young, still actively forming gas giant.
Rare Planetary Laboratory
These new observations provide, for the first time, definitive evidence of a second young protoplanet in the WISPIT 2 system.
Direct observation of planets in their formation stage is extremely rare. Of the thousands of known exoplanets, astronomers have only discovered multiple protoplanet systems in one star system called PDS 70. Therefore, this discovery makes WISPIT 2 the second known young star system with two confirmed giant planets within a multi-ringed disk.
Researchers believe that WISPIT 2 will become a unique laboratory for studying planet formation because it provides a rare window for astronomers to study environments similar to those of our solar system in its early stages approximately 4.5 billion years ago.
In the coming years, astronomers will continue to conduct further studies on WISPIT 2 using the Very Large Telescope and GRAVITY+; in the future, they will also use the MICADO instrument, currently under development for the Very Large Telescope (ELT). They hope this will help astronomers gain a deeper understanding of how gas, dust, and gravity work together to form new planets—that is, how these new worlds are born.