NASA: Water vapor detected in planet-forming zone
This artist’s concept portrays the star PDS 70 and its inner protoplanetary disk. New measurements by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected water vapor at distances of less than 100 million miles from the star – the region where rocky, terrestrial planets may be forming. This is the first detection of water in the terrestrial region of a disk already known to host two or more protoplanets, one of which is shown at upper right.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that one of their high-powered telescopes detected water vapor in deep-space.
According to NASA, its James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) detected water vapor in the inner disk of a planetary system known as PDS 70.
PDS 70, a system hosting an inner and outer disk of gas and dust, separated by a 5 billion-mile-wide gap is located 370 light-years away from earth. The system is also home to two know gas-giant planets.
The telescope’s systems detected the vapor at distances of less than 100 million miles from the star, where officials said rocky, terrestrial planets may be forming.
NASA said they’ve seen other disks where water vapor was seen but they’ve never been able to measure it like they can with the MIRI.
“This discovery is extremely exciting, as it probes the region where rocky planets similar to Earth typically form,” said Thomas Henning, co-principal investigator of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which made the detection.
For NASA’s full analysis of the water vapor discovered in PDS 70, click here.
