Unusual CO₂-rich disk detected around young star challenges planet formation models

“The researchers also detected rare isotopic variants of carbon dioxide, enriched in either carbon-13 or the oxygen isotopes ^(17)O and ^(18)O, clearly visible in the JWST data. These isotopologues could offer vital clues to long-standing questions about the unusual isotopic fingerprints found in meteorites and comets—relics of our own solar system’s formation.”