Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2026

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2026 bon-rich disk surrounding the world called CT Cha b, which is located 625 light-years away from Earth, is a possible construction yard for moons, although no moons are de- tected in the Webb data. The young star the planet orbits is only 2 mil- lion years old and still accreting cir- cumstellar material. However, the circumplanetary disk discovered by Webb is not part of the larger ac- cretion disk around the central star. A moon-forming disk around a massive planet by NASA/ESA/CSA, Laura Betz, Ray Villard, Christine Pulliam N ASA’s James Webb Space Tele- scope has provided the first direct measurements of the chemical and physical properties of a potential moon-forming disk en- circling a large exoplanet. The car-