An international team of astronomers led by Naman Bajaj of the University of Arizona and Uma Gorti of the SETI Institute studied gas dispersal in protoplanetary disks around 72 young Sun-like stars, infohub.kz reports.
The research used archival data from the MIRI instrument aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The findings were published in The Astronomical Journal.
Gas is a key building material for the formation of gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn. The analysis showed that in the early stages of system evolution, the main driver of gas loss is powerful jets and wide winds of molecular and atomic gas driven by magnetic fields. These carry material and angular momentum out of the disk.
As the star ages and accretion declines, magnetic jets weaken and are replaced by photoevaporation, in which the young star's ultraviolet and X-ray radiation heats atomic gas and causes it to escape the disk.
Traces of molecular hydrogen and ionized neon were detected in 66 of the 72 disks studied. Conical molecular winds were found in 46 systems, and fast-moving neon jets in 40.
The data confirm that planet formation is a race against time: gas giants must form before stellar winds and photoevaporation sweep the gas reserves entirely into open space.