JWST discovers a wide variety of carbon-rich gases that serve as ingredients for future planets around very low-mass stars

Artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disk around a very low mass star. It shows a selection of hydrocarbon molecules (methane, CH4; Ethan, C2H6; Ethylene, C2H2; Diacetylene, C4H2; Propyne, C3H4; Benzene, C6H6) detected on the disk around ISO-ChaI 147. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) / MPIA Planets form in disks of gas and dust that orbit young stars. … Read more

Rocky, carbon-rich exoplanets are more likely to orbit small stars, James Webb Space Telescope reveals

A glowing yellow orb in the center of the screen surrounded a disk of gassy material.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the richest ‘menu’ of hydrocarbons ever seen in a planet-forming disk. This observation, which involved the protoplanetary disk around a small star, also revealed the first detection of ethane outside the Solar System. The discovery was made when the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument … Read more