Giseon Baek

Abstract Crystalline silicates form at high temperatures (>900 K) (refs. 1,2). Their presence in comets3,4,5,6 suggests that high-temperature dust processing occurred in the early Solar System and was subsequently transported outwards to comet-forming regions. However, direct evidence for this crystallization and redistribution in Sun-like protostars has remained unknown. By comparing James Webb Space Telescope mid-infrared spectra of the periodically bursting protostar EC 53 (ref.

Abstract Complex organic molecules (COMs), which are the seeds of prebiotic material and precursors of amino acids and sugars, form in the icy mantles of circumstellar dust grains1 but cannot be detected remotely unless they are heated and released to the gas phase. Around solar-mass stars, water and COMs only sublimate in the inner few au of the circumstellar disk2, making them extremely difficult to spatially resolve and study.