The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has observed significant evidence supporting the long-held hypothesis of planet formation; This means that astronomers are confident that they understand part of the cosmic process correctly. Processed by an international team of researchers, JWST data supports the “pebble ice drift” theory, which is believed to be vital for the coalescence of dust and rock that would later develop into planets like ours.

In simple terms, icy pebble drift works like this: When small, ice-covered pieces of material hit each other in the outer reaches of a young proto-planetary disk, they lose momentum, allowing them to fall towards the star into a warmer region where they remain frozen. the coating sublimes. . The rocky planets form from this thin ring of debris and water vapor, serving as an effective delivery service for building materials throughout the newborn solar system.

As good as this idea is, studies of light from distant stars that might indicate the location of this water vapor have so far been too fuzzy to say for sure whether drifting of icy pebbles is occurring.

Here, the team looked at high-resolution images taken by JWST’s Mid-Infrared Camera to examine two variants of the protoplanetary disk; compact and expanded. As the name suggests, extended versions are larger and consist of distinct rings separated by pressure and gravity, while compact protoplanetary disks are more tightly packed together.

A new study shows that icy materials can move through protoplanetary disks, although this is easier in CDs.

“In the past, we had a very static picture of planet formation, as if there were isolated regions where planets formed,” said Colette Salik, a planetary scientist at Vassar College. says. “We now have evidence that these regions can actually interact with each other. The same phenomenon is hypothesized to occur in our own solar system.”

By comparing data from compact and expanded disks, the team was able to see that more water vapor accumulated at the “snow line” of the disk, where ice pebbles must lose much more vapor.

This supports the idea that building materials can move inward across the disc; This is a more effective phenomenon for CDs where large gaps do not need to be traversed. The theory is that as streams of sublimated pebbles continue to snowfall from the afterlife, they provide both solid material and water for the seeding of the new planet.

This impressive discovery was made possible thanks to ultra-sensitive, high-resolution instruments at JWST. Astronomers can now continue to study planet formation knowing that this particular process actually occurs.

“Webb finally found a connection between water vapor in the inner disk and the drift of icy pebbles in the outer disk,” says astrophysicist Andrea Banzatti of Texas State University. “This finding opens up exciting possibilities for studying the formation of rocky planets with Webb!” Source