How Webb Illuminates Stars’ Cloudy Origins

In the space between stars, dark clouds of gas, dust, and ice mingle in a chemical laboratory unlike any on Earth. Ewine van Dishoeck, an astronomer who studies molecules in space and who helped develop an instrument aboard NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, explains how Webb is revealing new details about the formation of stars and planets. This research could help unlock a key question about Earth: how did our planet end up with water and the ingredients for life?

You can listen to How Webb Illuminates Stars’ Cloudy Origins online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

How Webb Illuminates Stars’ Cloudy Origins is an episode from NASA's Curious Universe by Katie Konans.

This episode is 22:43 long.

This episode was published on Sep 30, 2025.

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