Planetary gas gaps and kinematic signatures in the planet forming disk around WISPIT 2
Abstract
The giant planet formation process in disks of gas and dust surrounding young stars is observationally still poorly constrained. Direct detection of protoplanets within the disk remains limited with current facilities. Indirect observational evidence of protoplanets through substructures or deviations from Keplerian rotation in the gas remains ambiguous in absence of detected planets. The lack of the combined detection of substructures and their corresponding planets makes it challenging to connect the planet formation process to the host environment. Observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) reveal clear detections of gas gaps and kinematic signatures in the WISPIT 2 protoplanetary disk that are cospatial with the locations of previously detected giant protoplanets. The newly identified gas gaps, observed in both the 12CO integrated intensity map and its rotation curve, correspond with the previously identified gaps in scattered light. Their morphologies are shown to be consistent with eccentric gaps, as expected from planet-disk interaction models of massive planets. The lack of eccentricity in the outer disk can be explained if a third planet is present in the system. The observations of WISPIT 2 provide a long-sought empirical bridge between kinematic signatures, gas gaps and giant planet formation in disks.
Related
- XUE. ProDiMo models of internally and externally irradiated planet-forming disks around 0.3-4.0 solar mass stars (The IRIS project I)
- Astrometric planet search around southern ultracool dwarfs. V. Discovery of the exoplanet candidate PALTA-1 b
- Planets Around Solar Twins/Analogs (PASTA). III. Chemical clock relations in planet-hosting solar analogs
- Gravitational instability in planet-forming discs
- Pathfinder results for populations of planet-forming discs with SKA
BibTeX
@misc{marel2026planetary,
title = {{Planetary gas gaps and kinematic signatures in the planet forming disk around WISPIT 2}},
author = {Nienke van der Marel and Jochen Stadler and Andres F. Izquierdo and Ruobing Dong and Bertram Bitsch and Jake Byrne and Richelle van Capelleveen and Chloe Lawlor and Christian Ginski and Matthew Kenworthy and .},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.05230},
eprint = {2609.05230},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05230},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Planetary gas gaps and kinematic signatures in the planet forming disk around WISPIT 2
AU - Nienke van der Marel
AU - Jochen Stadler
AU - Andres F. Izquierdo
AU - Ruobing Dong
AU - Bertram Bitsch
AU - Jake Byrne
AU - Richelle van Capelleveen
AU - Chloe Lawlor
AU - Christian Ginski
AU - Matthew Kenworthy
AU - .
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.05230
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05230
AB - The giant planet formation process in disks of gas and dust surrounding young stars is observationally still poorly constrained. Direct detection of protoplanets within the disk remains limited with current facilities. Indirect observational evidence of protoplanets through substructures or deviations from Keplerian rotation in the gas remains ambiguous in absence of detected planets. The lack of the combined detection of substructures and their corresponding planets makes it challenging to connect the planet formation process to the host environment. Observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) reveal clear detections of gas gaps and kinematic signatures in the WISPIT 2 protoplanetary disk that are cospatial with the locations of previously detected giant protoplanets. The newly identified gas gaps, observed in both the 12CO integrated intensity map and its rotation curve, correspond with the previously identified gaps in scattered light. Their morphologies are shown to be consistent with eccentric gaps, as expected from planet-disk interaction models of massive planets. The lack of eccentricity in the outer disk can be explained if a third planet is present in the system. The observations of WISPIT 2 provide a long-sought empirical bridge between kinematic signatures, gas gaps and giant planet formation in disks.
ER -