JWST traces crystal seeds from a newborn star to its outer disk
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope mapped where crystalline silicates form around the young star EC 53 in the Serpens Nebula and showed these minerals being carried outward by winds into the outer, planet-forming disk. EC 53 undergos ~18-month bursts lasting about 100 days, forging silicates in hot regions and launching them into cooler outer regions, effectively seeding the outer disk with components that icy comets may carry—providing a direct link between crystal formation and distribution in early planetary systems. The findings, published in Nature, help explain how comets at the solar system’s edge could form.