Webb saw for the first time winds blowing from the protoplanetary disk of a young star – the mass of the moon is blown out of it every year.

Humans understand the general principles by which planets form from protoplanetary disks, but we know very little about the details. The answer is hidden in the universe. By observing thousands of protoplanetary disks, we can learn about their behavior at different stages of development. The first step in this research was the observation of the protoplanetary disk of the star TCha with the James Webb instrument, which recorded the flow of winds, particles and gas from it for the first time. Neon lines were first discovered in spectra of particle fluxes from protoplanetary disks in 2007 by the Spitzer telescope. Webb’s appearance prompted scientists to reconsider the protoplanetary disk TCha. This observation helped identify three additional lines associated with the outflow of material from the disk. This time argon was confirmed. The question remained: What causes the gas to exit the protoplanetary disk? This usually occurs under the influence of high-energy photons emitted by young stars, but also under the influence of magnetic fields induced by the disk itself. It can also occur under the influence of The nature of leaks, the strength of these processes, and their distribution over time make it possible to understand the evolution of planets from dust and gas to full-fledged objects with planetary mass. For example, the planets in our solar system up to Mars absorb only a small amount of gas, but there are gas giants further into the system that contain unusually large amounts of gas. How the gas is distributed throughout the protoplanetary disk, and how much of that gas can be absorbed by planets at different distances from the star before stellar winds or something else blows the material away from the protoplanetary disk. It will be important to clarify and observe what is happening. The star TCha, observed for the first time by scientists, may provide some answers and clues to these questions with its protoplanetary disk and the winds it emanates from. Early estimates suggest that each year the star’s protoplanetary disk evaporates as much material as the moon. “Knowing how gas is distributed is important because it limits the time an emerging planet has to absorb gas from its environment,” the scientists explain in their paper. In this case, models show that the gas is being blown out of the disk by high-energy photons from the central star, narrowing the possibilities and providing more information for a conclusion. However, observations of the system will continue.

source:https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.01060