Nope, these aren't lightsabers. Shown here are two views of a dusty disk around a young star. To see the disk, Webb actually had to block out starlight (represented by the white star symbol) using a coronagraph, or mask. This is the first time that this disk, made of leftover debris from planet formation, has been observed in infrared wavelengths. Webb offers clues into both the history and composition of the disk. The young star is AU Mic, a nearby red dwarf star with two known planets. Webb’s images allowed the science team to trace the disk as close to the star as 5 astronomical units (460 million miles) — the equivalent of Jupiter’s orbit in our solar system. The ultimate goal for studying systems like AU Mic is to use Webb’s unprecedented sensitivity to observe giant planets in wide orbits, similar to Jupiter and Saturn in our own solar system. Webb’s observations mark new, uncharted territory for direct imaging around low-mass stars. Read more at the link in our bio. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and K. Lawson (Goddard Space Flight Center). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI) Image description: This image shows two views of the dusty debris disk around the red dwarf star AU Mic. The top panel is the disk at 3.56 microns. The disk appears as a fuzzy, blue, horizontal line broken in the middle by a black region outlined by a white, dashed circle. In the center of that region is a white, graphical star, which represents AU Mic. The actual star is blocked out in this image by Webb’s NIRCam coronagraph. The bottom panel is the second view of the disk, at 4.44 microns. The disk appears as a fuzzy, red, horizontal line broken in the middle by a black region outlined by a white, dashed circle. As in the top panel, in the center of that region is a cartoonish star representing AU Mic. The actual star is blocked out by the NIRCam’s coronagraph. #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASA #Space #AUMic #Coronagraph #Star #AAS241