{"id":44599,"date":"2024-02-29T14:10:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T14:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=44599"},"modified":"2024-02-29T14:10:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T14:10:53","slug":"planet-formation-and-water-vapour-found-to-be-linked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/planet-formation-and-water-vapour-found-to-be-linked\/44599\/","title":{"rendered":"Planet formation and water vapour found to be linked"},"content":{"rendered":"
Water is essential for life on Earth and is thought to play a significant role in planet formation.<\/p>\n
However, until now, astronomers have never been able to map how water is distributed in a stable, cool disc. This type of disc offers the most favourable conditions for planets to form around stars.<\/p>\n
Now, astronomers have weighed the amount of water vapour around a typical planet-forming star for the first time.<\/p>\n
The findings were made possible thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array<\/a> (ALMA) – a collection of telescopes in the Chilean Atacama Desert.<\/p>\n Dr Anita Richards, Senior Visiting Fellow at The University of Manchester and previously a member of the UK ARC, said: \u201cDirectly measuring the amount of water vapour where planets are forming takes us a step closer to understanding how easy it could be to make worlds with oceans – how much water is attached to the agglomerating rocks, or is it mostly added later to an almost-fully-formed planet?<\/p>\n \u201cThis sort of observation needs the driest possible conditions and could only be made in such detail using the ALMA array in Chile.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers observed at least three times as much water as in all of Earth\u2019s oceans in the inner disc of the young Sun-like star HL Tauri. This is located 450 lightyears away from Earth in the constellation Taurus.<\/p>\n Stefano Facchini, an astronomer at the University of Milan, Italy, who led the study, said: \u201cI had never imagined that we could capture an image of oceans of water vapour in the same region where a planet is likely forming.\u201d<\/p>\n Co-author Leonardo Testi, an astronomer at the University of Bologna, Italy, added: \u201cIt is truly remarkable that we can not only detect but also capture detailed images and spatially resolve water vapour at a distance of 450 lightyears from us.\u201d<\/p>\n The observations allow astronomers to determine the distribution of water in different regions of the disc.<\/p>\n A significant amount of water was found in a gap in the HL Tauri disc \u2013 a place where planet formation could occur.<\/p>\n Radial gaps are carved out in gas and dust-rich discs by orbiting young-plant like bodies as they gather material and grow. This observation indicates that water vapour could affect the chemical composition of planets forming in those regions<\/a>.<\/p>\n The dust grains that comprise a disc are the seeds of planet formation, colliding and clumping into even larger bodies orbiting the star.<\/p>\n Astronomers believe that where is it cold enough for water to freeze onto dust particles, things stick together more efficiently \u2013 making it the ideal spot for planet formation.<\/p>\n Observing water with a ground-based telescope is challenging as the abundant water vapour in Earth\u2019s atmosphere degrades the astronomical signals.<\/p>\n Operated by European Southern Observatory, ALMA sits at around 5,000 metres elevation and is built in a high and dry environment to minimise this degradation.<\/p>\n To date, ALMA is the only facility able to map the distribution of water in a cool planet-forming disc.<\/p>\n Members of the UK ARC are contributing to a major ALMA upgrade, which will provide even clearer views of planet formation and the role water plays in it, in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Researchers have found water vapour in the disk around a young star where planet formation can occur. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":44602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[771],"tags":[3477],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWater in the inner disk of stars<\/h3>\n
Water vapour could affect planet formation<\/h3>\n
ALMA\u2019s unique capabilities<\/h3>\n