Astronomers have detected water vapor in a planet-forming disk that surrounds a young Sun-like star located 450 light-years from Earth, the European Southern Observatory (OES) reported Thursday.
According to work published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy, water, in addition to being essential for life as we know it, also plays an important role in the formation of planets.
The disk in question is located around the star HL Tauri, located in the constellation Taurus.
“Our results show how the presence of water can influence the development of a planetary system, as it did about 4.5 billion years ago in our solar system,” astronomer Stefano Facchini of the University of Milan said, as quoted in the OES statement. in Italy, who led the study.
The images, from observations taken in Chile by the ALMA radio telescope, partly operated by OES, “reveal significant amounts of water vapor at a range of distances from the star, including the space where a planet may currently be forming,” possibly Facchini said. affects its chemical composition.
The dust grains that make up the disk are considered the seeds of planet formation as they collide and clump together into larger and larger bodies orbiting the star.
Astronomers say regions that are cold enough, where water freezes into grains of dust, are ideal places for planets to form.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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