![]() When Spitzer observed SZ Cha in 2008, it saw an outlier, with neon readings unlike any other young T-Tauri disk. Scientists use neon as an indicator of how much, and what type, of radiation is hitting and eroding the disk around a star. “The raw materials for Earth, and eventually life, were present in the disk of material that surrounded the Sun after it formed, and so studying these other young systems is as close as we can get to going back in time to see how our own story began.” “How did we get here? It really goes back to that big question, and SZ Cha is the same type of young star, a T-Tauri star, as our Sun was 4.5 billion years ago at the dawn of the solar system,” said astronomer Catherine Espaillat of Boston University, in Massachusetts, who led both the 2008 Spitzer observations and the newly published Webb results. Astronomers are investigating the cause of the difference between Webb and Spitzer’s readings, and think it may be due to the presence (or not) of a strong wind that, when active, absorbs EUV, leaving X-rays to hit the disk.ĭifferences in the neon readings between Spitzer and Webb point to a never-before-observed change in high-energy radiation that reaches the disk, which eventually causes it to evaporate, limiting the time planets have to form. ![]() These differences are significant because planets would have more time to form from a disk dominated by EUV. However, when NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope observed the disk in 2008, it saw a different scene, dominated by extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light, indicated by the presence of a specific type of neon in the disk. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed typical conditions in the disk – it was being bombarded primarily by X-rays. Planets are in a race against time to form before the disk of material is evaporated completely. SZ Cha emits radiation in multiple wavelengths which are evaporating the disk. The raw ingredients, including those for life on Earth, were present in the Sun’s protoplanetary disk. ![]() ![]() Once our solar system looked something like this, before planets, moons, and asteroids formed. In this artist concept, the young star SZ Chamaeleontis (SZ Cha) is surrounded by a disk of dust and gas with the potential to form a planetary system. ![]()
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