We report the discovery of a low-mass stellar companion around the young Herbig Be star MWC 297 .
We performed multi-epoch high-contrast imaging in the near infrared ( NIR ) with the Very Large Telescope ( VLT ) /Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch ( SPHERE ) instrument .
The companion is found at projected separation of 244.7 \pm 13.2 au and a position angle of 176.4 \pm 0.1 deg .
The large separation supports formation via gravitational instability .
From the spectrum , we estimate a mass of 0.1–0.5 M _ { \odot } , the range conveying uncertainties in the extinction of the companion and in evolutionary models at young ages .
The orbit coincides with a gap in the dust disk inferred from the Spectral Energy Distribution ( SED ) .
The young age ( \lesssim 1 Myr ) and mass ratio with the central star ( \sim 0.01 ) makes the companion comparable to PDS 70 b , suggesting a relation between formation scenarios and disk dynamics .