Since its commissioning, the James Webb Space Telescope has not stopped providing us with fascinating images. From July 12th, when we were able to see the first five images selected by NASA to show us how far it can go, or the new capture of The Pillars of Creation, whether we are astrophysicists, amateurs, or even completely ignorant of all this graphic material it offers us a unique vision of the Universe and at the same time tries to help us understand it a little better.

Now, while the images are spectacular and the opportunity to enjoy them is always appreciated, James Webb’s job is obviously not to be a camera in space, its aim is to gather useful information for different fields of research. In this regard, a few months ago we showed you how a star is born with images of the early phase of a protostar in the dark cloud of L1527. Previous observations, as well as theoretical research work on big brains, have given us a lot of information before, but these observations allow us to confirm what has been theorized and in many cases correct and/or add to existing work so far.

Now in these cases it is important to avoid sensationalism, although he is present day and night. For example, last summer it was widely reported that James Webb had disproved the big bang theory. It wasn’t true, but back in the day clickbait and the fake news was massively repeated, which is why many ignorant people labeled it as something true and confirmed that “it is a lie that something remains”.

But let’s get back to James Webb and his work that really interests us. And according to what we can read about the telescope on the European Space Agency’s official website, James Webb found ice in the darkest and coldest regions of the molecular cloud. And why is it so important? Well, because the ice, along with the dust and gas that surrounds the stars, are key components for exoplanet formation. More precisely, about a potentially habitable exoplanet, i.e. one on which life can occur.

Dust and gas due to the gusts of the stellar wind form clusters that become rocks as the dust accumulates, and as you may have already guessed, this process does not stop, it continues to grow. The gas, in turn, helps the rocks maintain their structural integrity and allow them to bond together. It’s a slow but constant process in which what starts as a simple pebble ends up as a planet orbiting the star that gave birth to it.

Now stardust and gas is not enough to sustain life. Since then we come to the importance of ice as discovered by James Webb it provides some of the basic ingredients for the cocktail of lifesuch as hydrogen and oxygen. The mixing occurs because the ice forms a frost on the dust grains, thus contributing to the composition of the future exoplanet.

Images: NASA, ESA, CSA and M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); F. Sun (Observatory Steward), Z. Smith (Open University) and the ERS Ice Age Team.