NASA’s James Webb Space TelescopeunveilsDark Side of Pre-stellar Ice Chemistry
Ices are a vital ingredient if you wish to create a livable planet because they are the main source of several key elements, namely Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Sulfur (referred to as CHONS).
These elements are vital ingredients in both planetary atmospheres and molecules like sugars, alcohols, and simple amino acids.
Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers obtained an in-depth and extensive inventory of the deepest, coldest ices ever measured in a molecular cloud.
Aside from simple ices like water, the team was able to recognize frozen forms of a wide range of molecules, from carbonyl sulfide, ammonia, and methane to the simplest complex organic molecule, methanol.
This is the most comprehensive inventory to date of the icy ingredients available to make future generations of stars and planets before they are heated during the formation of young stars.
The central region of the Chamaeleon I dark molecular cloud, which is located 630 light-years away, is shown in this image captured by the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).
The cold, wispy cloud material (blue, center) is illuminated in the infrared by the glow of the young, outflowing protostar Ced 110 IRS 4 (orange, upper left).
The light from numerous background stars, seen as orange dots behind the cloud, can be used to detect ices in the cloud, which absorb the starlight passing through them.
This research forms part of the Ice Age project, one of Webb's 13 Early Release Science programs. By making further observations, the Ice Age team hopes to trace out the journey of ices from their formation through to the assemblage of icy comets.
These results were published in the Jan. 23 issue of Nature Astronomy.