NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
For the first time, the researchers confirmed the presence of crystal clear water on a disc of dusty debris that orbits a star similar to the sun.
Is cold water scattered on systems around other stars? Astronomers have long been expecting yes, partly based on previous detections of their gas form, water vapor, and their presence in our own solar system.
Now there is definitive evidence: researchers have confirmed the presence of crystal clear water On a disc of dusty debris that orbits a star-like star at 155 light years away, using detailed data known as NASA’s James Webb space telescope shows.
The discovery was presented in a published on Wednesday in the magazine Nature.
In 2008, data from the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope, already retired, had suggested the possibility of cold water in this system.
“Webb unnecessaryly detected not only cold water, but crystal clear waterwhich is also in places such as Saturn’s rings and cold bodies at the kuiper waist of our solar system, ”he said Chen Xieresearcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, and the main author of the article.
All the cold water that the webb detected is associated with thin dust particles throughout the disc – as if they were small “dirty snowballs”. For decades astronomers have been waiting for these definitive data.
“When I was a student, 25 years ago, my advisor told me that there should be Ice in debris recordsbut before the webb we didn’t have sufficiently sensitive instruments to make these observations, ”he says Christine Chenastronoma at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and co-author of the study.
“What is most impressive is that These data are similar To other recent observations from the telescope of Kuiper’s waist objects on our own solar system, ”added Chen.
A Cold water is a vital ingredient In the albums around young stars – strongly influences the formation of giant planets and can also be delivered by small bodies, such as comets and asteroids, to rocky planets already formed.
Now that researchers have detected cold water with the webb, have opened the door to all researchers to study how these processes unfold in new ways in Many other planetary systems.
Rocks, dust and ice
The star, cataloged HD 181327it is significantly younger than our sun. It is estimated to have 23 million yearscompared to the 4.6 billion years of the sun.
The star is a little more massive than the sun, and it’s warmerwhich led to the formation of a slightly larger system around it. Webb’s observations confirm the existence of a significant division between the star and his debris album – A vast area free of poeira.
Further, your debris album is Kuiper’s waist From our solar system, where there are planets dwarfs, comets and other pieces of ice and rock (and sometimes collide with each other).
Thousands of millions of years ago, our waist of Kuiper was probably similar to this star’s debris album.
“HD 181327 is a very active system“Said Chen.“ There are regular and continuous collisions on your debris album. When these cold bodies collide, they release tiny dusty cold water particles that They have the perfect size to be detected by the webb ”.
Cold Water – Almost everywhere
The cold water It is not spread evenly by this system. Most are where it is colder and further from the star. “The outer area of the debris disc consists of more than 20% of cold water,” said Xie.
The closer the investigators looked, Less ice water found. In the middle of the debris disk, the Webb detected about 8% cold water.
Here, it is likely that cold water particles will be produced a little faster than they are destroyed. In the debris disc area closer to the star, the Webb detected almost any. It is likely that the ultraviolet light of the star Vaporize the cold water particles closer.
It is also possible that rocks known as Planeta have “locked” cold water in their interiors that the webb cannot detect.
This team and many other researchers will continue to look – and studying – Cold water in debris and planetary systems in active formation in our galaxy.
“The presence of cold water Helps facilitate planet formation“, Xie said.“ Iced materials can also be ‘delivered’ to terrestrial planets that can be formed over a few hundred millions of years in systems like this ”.
