16/05/2025
Ice ice baby!
Webb has found crystalline water ice in a debris disk around a young, Sun-like star called HD 181327. Based on its presence in our own solar system, scientists have expected to see it in other star systems - but haven't had sensitive enough instruments to provide definitive proof until now.
Webb detected frozen water paired with fine dust particles (like tiny dirty snowballs!) in the debris disk around this star. Its disk is similar to how the Kuiper Belt in our own solar system was billions of years ago. In fact Webb’s data of this debris disk around HD 181327 looks similar to its recent observations of Kuiper Belt objects. Our Kuiper belt orbits far away from our Sun, further out than Neptune and is made up of millions of small, icy objects including minor planets like Pluto. It’s essentially a region of leftovers from the solar system’s early history. These objects may have formed another giant planet, except they were unable to coalesce due to the effect of Neptune’s gravity.
This discovery in the HD 181327 system will allow researchers to study how water ice influences the processes within many other planetary systems - like the formation of giant plants, or its distribution to rocky planets via comets and asteroids.
Read more at the link in our comments.
Artist Illustration credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
