A team of scientists discovered steam from water Inside a disk of dust and gas –Protoplanetary disks– , in which they will form New planets with properties similar to oursas detailed in a large study Published this Monday (07.24.2023) by Nature.
The astronomical phenomenon was observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at PDS 70, a young star about 370 light-years away that hosts two distant exoplanets.
A key molecule for the fitness of a planet
According to the analysis of specialists, the water is in the form of hot steam that burns at a temperature of about 330 degrees Celsius.
The discovery, which explores the region where Earth-like planets naturally form, indicates that any object created within the disk around PDS 70 could harbor a large reservoir of water, improving its future chances of life.
The study marks an important step toward understanding how water, an essential molecule for life, gets to Earth, and whether this process can be expanded to include Rocky planets outside our solar system.
Water from birth or brought by asteroids
The research therefore provides evidence for a mechanism by which habitable planets are supplied with water from their formation stage and not (only) in a later process, such as an asteroid impact.
“We may now have found evidence that water could also be one of the primary ingredients of rocky planets – closest to their star – and be available from birth,” summarized the study’s lead author, Giulia Perotti, from the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
An unprecedented discovery
This is the first detection of water in the disk of a system that hosts at least two planets. these two outer planets (PDS 70 b and c) are not rocky, but gas giants the size of Jupiter and, like our solar system, far from their host star.
This type of planet It takes less time for them to form than rocky ones, and they do so by accumulating dust and gas left after star formation.
The source of the water is unknown
Since the source of the water vapor detected by JWST in PDS 70 is not clear, scientists have two theories: the remnants of an initially water-rich nebula that predates the disk phase, or the entry of gas from the outer edges of the disk.
In the first scenario, it is important to understand that stars form in huge clouds of gas and dust. Almost hundreds or thousands of new stars will have a disk from which planets will form later. In the second scenario, under certain conditions, oxygen and hydrogen can combine to form water vapor.
However, “the truth probably lies in a combination of all of these options. However, it is likely that one mechanism plays a critical role in maintaining the water reserves of PDS 70. The task ahead will be to find out what it is,” concluded Perotti.
JU (efe, Nature, Science Alert)
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