Artist’s impression of protoplanetary disc

This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which planets are forming.

An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to provide the first observation of water and other molecules in the inner, rocky-planet-forming regions of a disc in one of the most extreme environments in our galaxy. These results suggest that the conditions for rocky-planet formation, typically found in discs in regions where low-mass stars are formed, can also occur in regions where massive stars are formed and possibly in a broader range of environments.

[Image description: At the centre of the image, a bright light source illuminates a surrounding disc, which transitions from colours of white, grey, to orange. The disc is slightly tilted from upper left to lower right, and has spiral features that are most prominent near the star. Small, rocky objects are scattered throughout the disc. At upper right, there is a gap through which background stars can be seen.]

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