The nested morphology of disk winds from young stars revealed by JWST/NIRSpec observations

Radially extended disk winds could be the key to unlocking how protoplanetary disks accrete and how planets form and migrate. A distinctive characteristic is their nested morphology of velocity and chemistry. Here we report James Webb Space Telescope near-infrared spectrograph spectro-imaging of four young stars with edge-on disks, three of which have already dispersed their natal envelopes. For each source, a fast collimated jet traced by [Fe II] is nested inside a hollow cavity within wider lower-velocity H₂. In one case, a hollow structure is also seen in CO ro-vibrational (v = 1 → 0) emission but with a wider opening angle than the H₂, and both of those are nested inside an Atacama Large Millimeter Array CO (J = 2 → 1) cone with an even wider opening angle. This nested morphology, even for sources with no envelope, strongly supports theoretical predictions for wind-driven accretion and underscores the need for theoretical work to assess the role of winds in the formation and evolution of planetary systems.