Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a strange disk of gas and dust around an infant star that could challenge current models of planet formation.

The protoplanetary disk has an odd chemical composition. It features a surprisingly high concentration of carbon dioxide in the region in which rocky planets like Earth are expected to form and is also unexpectedly low in water content.

The protoplanetary disk investigated by JWST surrounds the infant star XUE 10, which is located around 5,550 light-years from Earth in the vast star-forming region known as NGC 6357. The new discovery was made by the eXtreme Ultraviolet Environments (XUE) collaboration, a research team that focuses on how intense fields of radiation impact the chemistry of protoplanetary disk

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