James Webb discovers water ice in young star system

In a study led by Johns Hopkins University, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected water ice surrounding a young star system named HD 181327, located 155 light-years from Earth. At just 23 million years old, this star represents an early-stage analogue of our 4.6-billion-year-old Solar System.

Since the star has yet to mature enough to form planets, it is surrounded by a dense disk of dust and gas. Using JWST's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), researchers identified chemical signatures specific to water.

"DIRTY SNOWBALLS" ORBITING THE STAR

Most of the detected water ice is concentrated in the system's outer belt, comprising over 20% of the total mass. These icy structures resemble the dusty ice bodies found in our Solar System's Kuiper Belt. Closer to the star, the amount of ice diminishes, likely due to ultraviolet radiation vaporizing it.

CLUES TO PLANET FORMATION

Lead author Chen Xie noted that the presence of ice supports planet formation and the delivery of water to emerging rocky planets, laying the foundation for potentially habitable environments. Co-author Christine Chen added, "Twenty-five years ago, my professor said debris disks should contain ice, but we lacked the tools to observe it."

MORE DISCOVERIES AHEAD

Collisions and ejected icy particles were also observed around HD 181327, indicating the system remains in an active formation phase. Researchers aim to study similar systems using telescopes like JWST to further understand how planetary systems develop.