GRAVITY+ takes a first look at the young protoplanet WISPIT 2 b

GRAVITY+ has taken a first look at the young protoplanet WISPIT 2 b with the VLTI. New high-precision astrometry and a K-band spectrum of this ~5-million-year-old forming planet sharpen its orbit and constrain its atmosphere and circumplanetary environment.

The companion is detected at about 322 mas, inside the gap of its transitional disk at roughly 60 au. The new astrometry prefers a moderately eccentric orbit. The medium-resolution K-band spectrum, together with photometry, points to an effective temperature of 900–1300 K and a slight preference for cloudy atmospheric models over a pure blackbody. The observations do not resolve a circumplanetary disk, and they place an upper limit on how extended such a disk could be.

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