ALMA Confirms Planet Gas Wake Beside Imaged Protoplanet for First Time

A team led by Myriam Benisty of MPIA mapped the gas around WISPIT 2b, a five-Jupiter-mass protoplanet 430 light-years from Earth. ALMA directly detected the gas velocity distortions the planet drives into its disk, giving the field its first confirmed calibration point for kinematic planet detection.

• WISPIT 2b lies 430 light-years away and has about five Jupiter masses
• ALMA reached 19×13 milliarcseconds, resolving structures about 2.5 AU across
• The planet orbits at 57 AU from its star; companion WISPIT 2c orbits at 14 AU
• Observations were taken in September and November 2025 and March 2026