"Extreme Environments Can Foster Formation of Rocky Planets, Webb Study Finds"

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has provided the first observation of water and other molecules in the inner regions of a disc in an extreme environment, suggesting that rocky planets can form in a broader range of environments than previously believed. The telescope's eXtreme UV Environments (XUE) program focuses on characterizing planet-forming discs in regions where massive stars are formed, and the first results show that the conditions for rocky planet formation in these regions are similar to those found in nearby star-forming regions. This discovery has important implications for understanding the diversity of exoplanet populations.