New Delhi: Researchers have directly imaged an exoplanet designated as WISPIT 2b, a gas giant containing about five times the mass of Jupiter in orbit around the host star about 437 lightyears from the Earth. Astronomers have discovered over 6,000 exoplanets, with the detection methods favouring the discovery of large worlds in tight orbits around small stars. WISPIT 2b is between 56 and 58 Astronomical Units or AU from the host star, with a single AU being the distance between the Sun and the Earth which made the direct imaging easier. Despite the immense mass, the planet is still accreting mass from the environment, and is a protoplanet.

Illustration of WISPIT 2b. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)).

The object is of scientific interest as a giant planet in the process o

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