The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disc.
An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/Webb James Webb Space Telescope to study the disc around a young and very low-mass star. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary disc (including the first extrasolar detection of ethane) and contribute to our evolving understanding of the diversity of planetary systems.
The science team explored the region around a very low-mass star of 0.11 solar masses (known as ISO-ChaI 147). These observations provide insights into the environment as well as basic ingredients for such planets to form. The team found that the gas in the planet-forming region of the star is rich in carbon. This could potentially be because carbon is removed from the solid material from which rocky planets can form, and could explain why Earth is relatively carbon-poor.
[Image description: At the centre of the image, a bright light source illuminates a surrounding disc, the colour of which transitions from bright yellow to darker orange. The image background is black.]