Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found water in the circumstellar disk of a nearby protostar called V883 Orionis. This is the first time water has been detected without significant changes to its composition. The finding suggests that the water in our solar system formed billions of years before the sun. The findings were published in Nature.
The researchers measured the composition of the water in V883 Ori using ALMA’s Band 5 and Band 6 receivers. They found that it remained relatively unchanged between each stage of solar system formation: protostar, protoplanetary disk, and comets. This means that the water in our solar system was formed long before the sun, planets, and comets. The water got directly incorporated into the solar system during its formation, suggesting that other planetary systems should have received large amounts of water too.
Observing water in circumstellar disks around protostars is problematic because, in most systems, water is present in the form of ice. When scientists observe protostars, they are looking for the water snow line, or ice line, which is the place where water transitions from predominantly ice to gas, which radio astronomy can observe in detail. V883 Ori’s disk is quite massive and hot enough that the water has turned from ice to gas, making it an ideal target for studying the growth and evolution of solar systems at radio wavelengths.
Understanding the role of water in developing comets and planetesimals is critical to understanding how our solar system developed. The findings suggest that the water in our solar system was inherited from the interstellar medium and formed long before the sun, planets, and comets formed.
References
- NRAO Public Information and News. (2023, March 8). ALMA Traces History of Water in Planet Formation Back to the Interstellar Medium. National Radio Astronomy Observatory. https://public.nrao.edu/news/water-v883-orionis/
- The Planetary Society. (2016, July 13). V883 Orionis, an infant stellar system. The Planetary Society; The Planetary Society. https://www.planetary.org/space-images/v883-orionis-an-infant
- Tobin, J. J., van ’t Hoff, M. L. R., Leemker, M., van Dishoeck, E. F., Paneque-Carreño, T., Furuya, K., Harsono, D., Persson, M. V., Cleeves, L. I., Sheehan, P. D., & Cieza, L. (2023). Deuterium-enriched water ties planet-forming disks to comets and protostars. Nature, 615(7951), 227–230. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05676-z
