James Webb reveals why planet formation is a race against time

Planets take shape inside disks of gas and dust surrounding young stars, but the supply of gas they depend on is temporary. New observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are giving astronomers a clearer picture of how that gas escapes and how the dominant escape mechanisms change as planetary systems mature.

The study, led by Naman Bajaj of the University of Arizona and coauthored by SETI Institute scientist Uma Gorti, examined 72 young, Sun-like stars and their protoplanetary disks. It is among the largest studies of planet formation conducted with JWST and suggests that different kinds of winds dominate at different stages of a system's early development.

The findings have been published in The Astronomical Journal .