by Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to paint a picture of the burger-shaped material around a young star.
The delicious investigation by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Ice Age team has produced the first detailed two-dimensional inventory of ice in a so-called protoplanetary disk – the type of structure from which the planets of our solar system evolved about 4.5 billion years ago. long ago.
“Direct mapping of ice in a planet’s formation disk provides important input for modeling studies that help to better understand the formation of our Earth, other planets in our solar system, and around other stars,” research lead author and Leiden University scientist Ardjan Said Storm in a statement. “With these observations, we can now begin to make firmer statements about the physics and chemistry of star and planet formation.”
Astronomical discovery ice may not sound too cool (if you’ll pardon the pun) but scientists care about the finding because the presence of ice on protoplanetary disks is critical to the birth of planets, and even comets. Ice allows solid dust grains in protoplanetary disks to collide, creating chunks of material that can gather mass and eventually become planets. Ice can also contain vital molecules such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen that can be sealed in comets and delivered to planetary surfaces, eventually becoming the building blocks of life.
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However, despite its importance in the formation of our planet and our life on it, a detailed account of the ice in the protoplanetary disks of other stars has eluded astronomers — until now, that is.
This is because Earth’s water-laden atmosphere has obscured our view of these discs; other space-based instruments have also failed to resolve them in detail because they are so weak. However, this is not an issue for the high-resolution infrared view of the $10 billion JWST, the most powerful telescope ever put into orbit that can produce detailed observations.
JWST takes a bite of a cosmic burger
To carry out the study, the Ice Age team trained the JWST on a young star called HH 48 NE, located about 600 light-years away. The training took place as the star passed through the “buns” of this cosmic burger, an illusion created by our view of the protoplanetary disk, with a dark lane of dust passing through its central slices of lettuce and tomato.
As the starlight from HH 48 NE passes through the burger-like protoplanetary disk, it interacts with molecules in the disk and is absorbed. The fact that elements and molecules absorb and emit light at specific frequencies means that they leave their fingerprints on the starlight itself when it reaches the JWST.
In the light of this young star, the astronomers could see the fingerprints of ammonia, cyanate, carbonyl sulfide and heavy carbon dioxide, all in the form of ice. They were also able to calculate the ratio of heavy carbon dioxide to “normal” carbon dioxide, allowing them to account for the latter molecule, which is common here on Earth.
One result of this particular aspect of the research is the discovery that carbon monoxide ice in the protoplanetary disk could be mixed with less volatile carbon dioxide and water, allowing it to remain frozen closer to the young star. than before. estimated. This means that planets with a high carbon content could form close to their stars.
The first results from the JWST Ice Age project were delivered in 2023, and with this ice inventory under their belt, the team will now look at other protoplanetary disks to see if they hold the same mixtures of carbon-based ices. This could lead scientists to change their thinking about understanding planetary composition.
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“In 2016, we created one of JWST’s first research programs, Ice Age. We wanted to study how the icy building blocks of life arise on the journey from their origins in cold interstellar clouds to the comet-forming regions of systems young planets,” said research co-author and Leiden University scientist Melissa McClure. “The results are coming now.
“It’s a very exciting time.”
The team’s research is detailed in a paper published on December 6 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
