Astronomers Identify Second Massive Gas Giant Forming Within the WISPIT 2 Planetary System Using ESO Telescopes

Astronomers use ESO’s VLT to confirm a second gas giant forming in the WISPIT 2 system, offering a rare look at the birth of a solar system.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 24, 2026, 12:30 PM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from ESO

Direct Observation of an Emerging Multi-Planet Architecture

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released high-resolution imagery revealing a second gas giant in the process of formation around the young star WISPIT 2. This discovery marks only the second time in astronomical history that multiple planets have been directly observed while still embedded in their primordial disc of gas and dust. According to Chloe Lawlor, a PhD student at the University of Galway and lead author of the study, WISPIT 2 currently serves as the most comprehensive window into the early history of planetary systems, providing a "laboratory" to witness how these environments evolve into mature configurations like our own.

The Comparative Scale of the WISPIT 2 Gas Giants

The newly confirmed planet, designated WISPIT 2c, is approximately twice as massive as its sibling, WISPIT 2b, and orbits four times closer to the central star. WISPIT 2b, which was initially detected in 2025, possesses a mass five times greater than Jupiter and maintains an orbital distance 60 times the separation between the Earth and the Sun. Both objects are classified as gas giants, drawing immediate comparisons to the outer planets of our Solar System, though they remain in a much more volatile and active stage of growth within the surrounding disc material.

Advanced Instrumentation and Atmospheric Turbulence Correction

Confirming the planetary nature of WISPIT 2c required the specialized capabilities of the SPHERE instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). SPHERE is designed to correct for the blurring effects of Earth’s atmospheric turbulence while simultaneously blocking the overwhelming light from the central star to reveal the faint signatures of nearby planets. Furthermore, the researchers utilized the recently upgraded GRAVITY+ instrument on the VLT Interferometer. Guillaume Bourdarot, a co-author from the Max Planck Institute, stated that this upgrade was critical for achieving a clear detection of a planet positioned so close to its host star.