How do planetary systems form in the solar system? To learn more, scientists from Eof the French Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), who were part of an international research team, studied a “nursery” of stars, the Orion Nebula, using the James Webb Space Telescope. By observing a protoplanetary disk, d203-506, they discovered the central role that large stars play in the birth of these systems.

Massive stars, 10 times more massive and 100,000 times brighter than the Sun, emit ultraviolet radiation that, depending on the mass of the star at the center of the planetary system, can either help or hinder planet formation. In the Orion Nebula scientists found that, due to the intense radiation, it is impossible for gas giants like Jupiter to form in the d203-506 system.

These stars can “evaporate” the matter needed to form giant planets, as reported in today’s Science of Science Review.

The small, nascent system d203-506 lies at the edge of the Orion Nebula. It is very “new” and, in theory, has what it would take to form at least one gas giant, such as Jupiter or Saturn, i.e. a planet composed essentially of hydrogen and helium. The small star at its center is surrounded by a protoplanetary disk, i.e. a cloud of gases that serve as raw material for the formation of gas planets.

But, unfortunately for it, this system receives very strong ultraviolet radiation from the huge, nearby stars of the open Trapezium cluster in the Orion Nebula. These stars are almost 100,000 times brighter than the Sun. Their radiation heats the cloud of gases and creates the phenomenon of “photoevaporation”. The hydrogen molecules of the cloud reach a temperature so high that they begin to move at such a speed that they escape the star’s pull. And then they scatter into interstellar space.

According to the study, the effects of the radiation are such that gas escapes from the protoplanetary disk in less than a million years, fast enough to affect the formation of gas giant planets.

The observation of the phenomenon was made possible by combining the data collected by James Webb with that of the ALMA radio telescope.