ESO (European Southern Observatory)

Two Planets Spotted Forming Around a Young Star | ESO News

Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope interferometer have confirmed a second planet forming around the young star WISPIT 2, offering an unprecedented glimpse of a nascent planetary system. The two newborn worlds carve out clear, circular gaps in the surrounding protoplanetary disc, a signature that material is being swept up along their orbits. This system joins only one other—PDS 70—where two planets have been directly observed in the act of formation, and its multiple concentric gaps suggest even more planets are currently coalescing. Researchers note that "the circular gaps are the fingerprints of planets pulling in dust and gas," underscoring how the disc’s architecture directly maps to planetary growth. High‑resolution imaging revealed the gaps at distances comparable to the orbits of Mercury and Earth in our own Solar System. These observations provide a critical benchmark for models of early Solar System evolution, allowing scientists to test theories of planet migration, accretion rates, and disc‑planet interactions, and they set the stage for future studies with next‑generation telescopes.