Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2024

15 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 ASTRO PUBLISHING than disks around high-mass stars. A program called the MIRI (Mid- Infrared Instrument) Mid-INfrared Disk Survey (MINDS) aims to use Webb’s unique capabilities to build a bridge between the chemical in- ventory of disks and the properties of exoplanets. “Webb has better sensitivity and spectral resolution than previous in- frared space telescopes,” explained lead author Aditya Arabhavi of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “These observations are not possible from Earth, because the emissions from the disk are blocked by our atmosphere.” In a new study, this team explored the region around a very low-mass star known as ISO-ChaI 147, a 1 to 2 million-year-old star that weighs just 0.11 times as much as the Sun. The spectrum revealed by Webb’s MIRI shows the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a proto- planetary disk – a total of 13 differ- ent carbon-bearing molecules. The T his is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a disk of gas and dust. An international team of astronomers has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to study the disk around a young and very low-mass star known as ISO-ChaI 147. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary disk. [NASA-JPL]