Overview
- The Astronomical Journal paper published Tuesday used JWST MIRI spectra of 72 young, Sun-like systems to assemble an evolutionary sequence of disk mass loss.
- In the early phase of disk life, roughly the first 1–10 million years, magnetically launched jets and MHD disk winds dominate mass loss and block high-energy photons from reaching the outer disk.
- As accretion falls and disks thin, those magnetic outflows fade and photoevaporative atomic winds driven by stellar UV and X-rays become the primary mechanism that strips remaining gas.
- The team separated mechanisms using spectral tracers: warm molecular hydrogen to trace jets and molecular winds and ionized neon to identify unambiguous photoevaporative flows.
- The findings mean gas giants must accrete their atmospheres before these winds remove the raw material, and the next work will quantify mass-loss rates and map where each process removes gas in disks.