WISPIT 2
WISPIT 2 is a pre-main-sequence star in the constellation Aquila. It is part of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association, likely belonging to the subgroup Theia 53. The star has a directly imaged circumstellar disk with multiple rings and one directly imaged protoplanet inside one of the gaps. This protoplanet was also detected in H-alpha, showing it is surrounded by a circumplanetary disk. The star is named after the astronomical survey Wide Separation Planets In Time in the course of which the protoplanetary system was discovered.
The circumstellar disk
The disk was classified as transitional, meaning it has an inner cavity. The disk has 4 rings and one prominent gap at 68 astronomical units. The outermost ring is located at 316 AU and the disk was detected out to a distance of 2.8 arcseconds from the star. The inclination of the disk is around 44° to 46°.Planetary system
Observations with VLT/SPHERE, Magellan MagAO-X and Large [Binocular Telescope|LBT]/LMIRcam revealed one planet located inside gap 3. The protoplanet was confirmed to move with the star and shows orbital motion in images from October 2023 to April 2025. The planet has a mass of around 5 and is responsible for clearing a gap inside the disk. The protoplanet is also detected in H-alpha, showing that it is accreting material from a circumplanetary disk. This makes WISPIT 2b similar to the PDS 70 planets, 2MJ1612b and possibly LkCa 15b.One additional inner candidate planet was detected, but CC1 could also be a dust clump and needs further observations to be confirmed as a planet.