(MENAFN) In a scientific breakthrough, astronomers have, for the first time, directly observed a giant planet forming within a dark gap in the dusty disk encircling a young star — an observation that supports long-held theories on how large planets come into being, NASA announced Wednesday.

The planet, named WISPIT 2b, is approximately five times the mass of Jupiter and only about 5 million years old, making it nearly a thousand times younger than Earth. It orbits a youthful star located roughly 437 light-years from Earth, within the WISPIT 2 system.

What sets this discovery apart is the planet's location: it lies precisely inside a ring-shaped void in the protoplanetary disk surrounding its host star. For years, astronomers have theorized that such gaps result from emerging planets clearing paths through surrounding material. This marks the first time a planet has been visually confirmed in such a gap.

The observation was led by a research team including University of Arizona astronomer Laird Close and Richelle van Capelleveen, a graduate student at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. Van Capelleveen had earlier identified the disk and ring structures of the WISPIT 2 system using the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Described as a "baby planet," WISPIT 2b is still actively accreting gas and dust, providing scientists with a rare opportunity to witness the planet formation process as it happens. Researchers believe the planet formed precisely in its current position rather than migrating there — a detail that deepens understanding of how solar systems like ours may have originated.

Adding further intrigue, the team also detected a dim, secondary object within a closer ring gap that could potentially be another planet in the early stages of formation, though it has yet to be confirmed.

NASA emphasized the significance of the finding, stating that it not only sheds light on the way giant planets shape their birth environments but also opens a window into the chaotic processes that likely forged planetary systems — including our own — billions of years ago.

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