Manuel Güdel

A disk of gas and dust spins around the young star HV Tau C, nearly edge-on to us. The James Webb Space Telescope examined its spectrum and detected the glow of hot molecular hydrogen (H₂). This revealed a wide, bipolar wind blasting from the inner regions far beyond the disk.

A planet in the habitable zone is no guarantee of life. Like a conductor leading an orchestra, a star dictates the tempo and character of planetary atmosphere evolution over billions of years.