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Published December 20, 2025 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Discovery of a Debris Disk around TWA 20

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of California, Santa Barbara
  • 2. ROR icon University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • 3. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 4. ROR icon Space Telescope Science Institute
  • 5. ROR icon University of Edinburgh
  • 6. ROR icon University of Exeter
  • 7. ROR icon University of Victoria
  • 8. ROR icon Northwestern University
  • 9. ROR icon UK Astronomy Technology Centre
  • 10. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 11. ROR icon University of Montreal
  • 12. ROR icon European Space Astronomy Centre
  • 13. ROR icon Johns Hopkins University

Abstract

We report the discovery of a debris disk surrounding the M3 star TWA 20, revealed by JWST coronagraphic observations using the Near Infrared Camera. With reference differential imaging (RDI), we resolve the disk in scattered light in the F200W filter at a high signal-to-noise ratio and in the F444W filter at a low signal-to-noise ratio. The disk morphology and orientation are characterized via a forward-modeling approach, where we determine a radius of 64.7_(−6.5)^(+6.2) au and an inclination of 70.1_(−3.3)^(+2.5) degrees. Utilizing our forward model, we improve the fidelity of the debris disk image using model-constrained RDI. The newly discovered disk is one of only six disks detected in scattered light that orbit M dwarf stars; it is the third largest of the six resolved M dwarf disks and orbits the third faintest host star. The detection of this disk exemplifies the sensitivity of JWST to debris disks around low-luminosity host stars, which have historically been difficult to detect because these disks are cool and dim. We identify a nebulous structure that cannot be explained by an axisymmetric disk. A search for companions in the TWA 20 system yields no candidates.

Copyright and License

© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

Acknowledgement

This work is based on observations with the NASA/ESA/CSA JWST, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127. These observations are associated with the JWST program 4050 (PI: A. Carter). The JWST data presented in this article were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Support for program 4050 was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127. This work benefited from the 2024 and 2025 Exoplanet Summer Program in the Other Worlds Laboratory (OWL) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a program funded by the Heising–Simons Foundation.

S.P. acknowledges the significant harm caused to members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the Department of State and NASA, while under the leadership of James Webb as Under Secretary of State and NASA Administrator, respectively.

S.P. and M.M.B. are supported by Space Telescope Science Institute under grant No. JWST-GO-04050.015-A.

A.S. is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. 2139433.

S.M. acknowledges funding by the Royal Society through a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF-R1-221669) and the European Union through the FEED ERC project (grant No. 101162711). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship Award No. 2401654 for author B.L. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

R.B.W. is supported by a Royal Society grant (RF-ERE-221025).

Data Availability

The JWST data used in this paper can be found in MAST at doi:10.17909/s1ea-h159.

Facilities

JWST(NIRCam) - .

Software References

astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018, 2022), Winnie (K. Lawson et al. 2022; K. Lawson et al. 2023), ibadpx (K. Lawson 2024), STPSF (M. D. Perrin et al. 2014), LMFit (M. Newville et al. 2025), DYNESTY (J. S. Speagle 2020; S. Koposov et al. 2024), SPECIES (T. Stolker et al. 2020), MCFOST (C. Pinte et al. 2022).

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2510.20216 (arXiv)
Is supplemented by
Dataset: 10.17909/s1ea-h159 (DOI)

Funding

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NAS 5-03127
Space Telescope Science Institute
JWST-GO-04050.015-A
National Science Foundation
2139433
Royal Society
URF-R1-221669
European Union
101162711
National Science Foundation
2401654
Royal Society
RF-ERE-221025

Dates

Submitted
2025-08-29
Accepted
2025-10-22
Available
2025-12-12
Published

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status
Published