Moon-Forming Dust Disk Discovered Around a Massive Planet

Moon-forming dust disk discovered around a massive planet

Webb Telescope spots a carbon-rich disk around a distant planet, CT Cha b, offering rare clues to how moons may form.

Moon-forming disk found around massive planet

Artist’s concept of a moon-forming disk of dust and gas encircling the young exoplanet, CT Cha b, 625 light-years from Earth. Data from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest the disk contains the raw materials for moon formation. The planet appears at lower right, with its host star and surrounding protoplanetary disk in the background. Image via NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ STScI/ G. Cugno (University of Zürich, NCCR PlanetS)/ S. Grant (Carnegie Institutio…