Space might be a never-ending expanse, but as astronomers continue to look to the stars, it's just got a little smaller. Even though our own solar system only has eight planets (sorry, Pluto), it's said there are at least 100 billion further afield in our Milky Way. Beyond that, there are potentially trillions, with it being impossible to catalogue them all.
Still, as astronomers delve deeper into the cosmos and the tools to look into space become more advanced, we're slowly mapping the stars.
They've found a brand-new planet that's been dubbed WISPIT 2b, which admittedly isn't the catchiest name.
WISPIT 2b was discovered using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), located in Chile’s Atacama Desert and said to be one of the most advanced observatories in the world.
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A study into the discovery has been published in the international journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, uniting the comprehensive research of Leiden University, the University of Galway, and the University of Arizona.
If you want to look out for WISPIT 2b yourselves, you'll need a pretty powerful piece of kit. The planet is located approximately 430 light-years away toward the Aquila constellation, although it's invisible to the naked eye.
Dr Christian Ginski is a lecturer at the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Galway and is the second author of the study. Expanding on WISPIT 2b, Dr. Ginski explained: "We used these really short snapshot observations of many young stars – only a few minutes per object – to determine if we could see a little dot of light next to them that is caused by a planet.
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“However, in the case of this star, we instead detected a completely unexpected and exceptionally beautiful multi-ringed dust disk.
“When we saw this multi-ringed disk for the first time, we knew we had to try and see if we could detect a planet within it, so we quickly asked for follow-up observations."
Importantly, the discovery of WISPIT 2b is only the second time a planet at this young stage of evolution has been discovered. The previous was found back in 2018 by a team that also included Ginski.
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Images show off the latest proto-planet embedded in a disc cap, with dust and gas-rich discs surrounding young stars, effectively being the birth cradles of young planets.
The exoplanet is thought to be around the side of Jupiter, and remembering that our solar system is 4.6 billion years old, WISPIT 2b's 5,000,000 age is quite astounding.
The University of Arizona detected WISPIT 2b in near infrared light, which shows it is still glowing hot after being formed.
Amazingly, the disc around WISPIT 2b has a radius that spans 380 astronomical units. To put it into context, that's around 380 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
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Expanding on its importance, University of Galway MSc student Jake Byrne said: "The planet is a remarkable discovery. I could hardly believe it was a real detection when Dr. Ginski first showed me the image.
"It's a big one - that's sure to spark discussion within the research community and advance our understanding of planet formation."