With just under 12 hours to go, here's how JWST Cycle 5 proposal submissions are progressing according to our sampling of the star and planet formation people here in Leiden! We're well past the 1000 mark for the year (and 10,000 across all years!) now, but where will we end up?

Another MINDS JWST paper! We explore the stark transition from H2O-dominated spectra in Sun-like systems to the carbon-rich chemistry seen for low-mass objects. We don't know exactly what is driving this trend, but we explore the possibilities that may be acting in concert. arxiv.org/pdf/2508.04692

New MINDS paper from Nicolas Kurtovic, focused on binary systems. Spectra, extended emission, variability, multi-observatory analysis -- there's something for everyone! arxiv.org/pdf/2508.02576

Based on a recent workshop series, hosted by Giovanni Rosotti, @cfmanara.bsky.social, Tom Haworth, and Megan Reiter, we summarised in @ojastro.bsky.social the latest results on a growing topic in protoplanetary discs - the role of external irradiation - and how we hope to answer the open questions:

Super proud of my PhD student Osmar who discovered that the so-called 'compact disks' around young stars are REALLY REALLY small! Look at the full sample of Lupus disks, observed at 30 mas resolution with ALMA.

I used to do science outreach with a group called CHaOS (see link!). We’d often ask kids to draw a scientist at the start and end of our sessions. They’d often go from drawing an Einstein-esque mad scientist, to someone who looked at lot like themselves (or perhaps one of us) 😊 #AcademicChatter

Congrats to my student Chengyan Xie 🎉 for his work analyzing Spitzer+JWST data on T Cha! 🌟 He uncovered dramatic changes in the star’s disk—inner disk eroding in an outburst, reshaping IR emission. This object deserves follow-up! 🪐✨ #JWST iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

The accepted version of my SY Cha winds paper is now on arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2409.11176! And if you are at #AAS245 I will discuss the results TODAY at 2 pm in Potomac 3-4 🧪🔭

The latest protoplanetary disk study by the MINDS collaboration using JWST-MIRI is out now! arxiv.org/abs/2412.127... Led by Leiden PhD student Marissa Vlasblom, it focusses on CX Tau, a disk for which the dust emission is much more compact than gas, suggesting dust grains have drifted inwards. 1/4

JWST MIRI has revealed that disks around very low-mass stars are hydrocarbon-rich but water-poor in the inner disk (Aditya Arabhavi). Result of dust traps? What are the implications for planets forming here? #NOVA25

It's paper day! arxiv.org/abs/2412.01895 JWST is studying the molecular contents of the inner regions of protoplanetary discs in unprecented detail, and they turn out to be very varied. Some discs, eg DR Tau, are dominated by emission from water, others, eg GW Lup, are dominated by CO2. But why? 1/6