Redcastle man discovers new-born planet in distant solar system

When Redcastle’s Dan McLachlan, a postgraduate student at the University of Galway, sat down to pore over astronomical data earlier this year, he never expected to find himself helping uncover a brand-new planet.

Yet that’s exactly what happened, and the discovery has now been hailed as one of the most exciting breakthroughs in astronomy this decade.

The 25-year-old was part of an international team of researchers who identified WISPIT 2b, a gas giant still in the earliest stages of formation. The planet, roughly the size of Jupiter and about five million years old, orbits a young star some 380 times further from its sun than Earth is from ours.

The findings, published in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal Letters, mark only the second time scientists have confirmed a planet at such an early stage of its evolution. Even more striking, WISPIT 2b is the first planet ever imaged in a disk of dust and gas - the cradle in which new planets are born.

For McLachlan, who has just completed a masters degree in astronomy at University of Galway, the discovery is the culmination of a childhood passion for stargazing that was nurtured by his father, composer John McLachlan, and encouraged by his mother, music teacher and choir director Helen Haughey.

“Sometimes you get so focused on a small task that you forget the big picture,” Dan said. “Then you step back and realise you’re helping to confirm the existence of a planet outside our solar system.

“It’s mind-blowing.”

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The breakthrough research was led by PhD student Richelle van Capelleveen at Leiden University in the Netherlands, along with Dr Christian Ginski at University of Galway. Observations were made using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert - one of the most advanced facilities of its kind on Earth.

Although McLachlan didn’t travel to Chile, his contribution was key. He worked on ‘deprojecting the disk’ in which the planet was embedded - a complex mathematical process that transforms slanted telescope images into a clear, top-down view of the dusty rings encircling the young star.

“Planets are born in these disks of dust and gas, but the disks aren’t flat - they curve upwards as they extend away from the star,” Dan explained. “Because we see them at an angle, you need to collapse and stretch the image mathematically to make sense of the structures.

“That’s what I worked on, alongside comparisons with models to see if one planet could explain the multiple rings we were observing.”

His analysis not only helped confirm WISPIT 2b’s presence but will also aid future searches for young planets which are notoriously difficult to spot directly even with the most advanced technology.

WISPIT 2b is located about 430 light-years away from Earth, which is to say it’s very, very far away in terms of human travel...but it's located in the same part of the Milky Way galaxy as us and could be described as being in our interstellar neighbourhood.

Stargazing over Lough Foyle

McLachlan, who is a former pupil at Scoil Naomh Fionán in Whitecastle and Moville Community College, developed an early fascination with astronomy. Evenings spent stargazing with his father, followed by teenage viewings of the science-fiction epic ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, left him awestruck by the vastness of space.

“I was blown away by the film’s vision of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons,” he recalled. “It planted a seed that’s stayed with me ever since.”

That interest deepened during his undergraduate studies, when he undertook a final-year project modelling the Southern Ring Nebula, the glowing remains of a dying star. “It was the most exciting academic work I’d ever done, and I knew then that I wanted to dedicate myself to astrophysics research.”

Now, after completing his master’s degree in Galway, he is preparing to move to Prague to begin a PhD focusing on FS CMa stars - rare systems formed through stellar mergers.

“In simple terms, it’s about stars colliding and merging together,” he said. “It’s a whole other frontier in understanding how stars live and die.”

Science and music

Despite his growing reputation in astronomy circles, McLachlan’s interests remain broad. A talented guitarist and traditional flute player, he spends much of his free time writing and recording music, often to the soundtrack of his favourite progressive rock bands Gentle Giant, Gong, and Henry Cow. He’s also a keen birdwatcher, and jokes that he often alternates between looking through binoculars at the sky and at the hedgerows.

His younger brother Garvan, 20, is studying politics, sociology and law, while their parents’ careers in composition and music teaching have given Dan a deep appreciation for the arts alongside science. “It’s a very creative household,” he said. “In many ways, astronomy and music aren’t so different - both involve looking for patterns, structure and beauty.”

A planet in the making

WISPIT 2b has already captured the imagination of astronomers worldwide. Still glowing faintly from the heat of its formation, it was observed in both infrared and visible light, the latter confirming that it is actively accumulating gas to form its atmosphere.

“This system will likely be a benchmark for years to come,” said van Capelleveen, the discovery’s lead author. Dr Ginski added that capturing such a clear image of a forming planet was “extremely challenging” but vital for understanding why exoplanetary systems often look so different from our own solar system.

McLachlan, ever modest, insists the lion’s share of credit goes to his supervisor and colleagues. “Richelle and Christian deserve enormous recognition for leading this project,” he said. “I’m just grateful to have played a part.”

Staying grounded

For all his enthusiasm for the cosmos, McLachlan is quick to point out that he has no desire to leave Earth himself.

“Absolutely not!” he laughed when asked about the prospect of travelling into space. “First off, I’m terrified of heights – flying by plane is already almost too much for me.

“But more seriously, I think the billionaire dreams of colonising other planets are a bit of a cop-out from looking after the perfectly good one we already live on.”

Instead, he hopes to keep contributing from solid ground.

His master’s research on planet formation in so-called ‘cometary globules’ - dense, radiation-battered clouds of dust and gas - is being prepared for publication. “It’s really a story about the troubled upbringing of bullied and put upon planets,” he joked. “You could almost write it as a children’s book.”

For now, he’s savouring the experience of seeing his name attached to a major scientific breakthrough. “It still feels surreal,” he admitted. “I never thought I’d be profiled in the paper for helping to discover a planet. It’s the sort of thing you dream about as a kid, and now here we are.”