WISPIT 2b: Giant Planet Growing in a Distant Gap

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC): 'This artist's concept depicts the protoplanet WISPIT 2b accreting matter as it orbits around its star, WISPIT 2. NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)' NASA (September 30, 2025)

WISPIT 2 is a protostar, a very young star that's still growing. At the moment, it's roughly as massive as our Sun, and very roughly a third of the way to Kappa Aquila: a very bright, very hot, star that's about 11,000,000 years old.

WISPIT 2 is also noteworthy because scientists got a photo of one of its planets: WISPIT 2B, a whacking great — no, I'll let someone with NASA explain it.1...

More at A Catholic Citizen in America.

(WISPIT 2b: a giant young planet at an unexpectedly large distance from its star. Excerpt from a NASA news release, infrared images, and my reaction.)

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