Webb follows neon signs toward new thinking on planet formation

Scientists are following neon signs in a search for clues to one planetary system’s future and the past of another—our own solar system. Following up on a peculiar reading by NASA’s previous infrared flagship observatory, the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope, the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope detected distinct traces of the element neon in the dusty disk surrounding the young sun-like star SZ Chamaeleontis (SZ Cha).