ALMA telescope discovers oceans of water vapor in star's planet-forming disc
Water is vital for life on Earth and plays a crucial role in forming planets. Facchini and his team's findings support theories about water's impact on planet formation.
Water in Space
Focusing on the disc around HL Tauri – a young star resembling our Sun, but much younger and located 450 light-years away – astronomers found it contains three times as much water as all of Earth's oceans combined.
The team detected water vapor within this distant circumstellar disc thanks to the images captured. Interestingly, a significant amount of this water is situated where there is a noticeable gap in the disc, potentially indicating the presence of an emerging planet. As planets form, they accumulate matter from gas and dust-rich discs, creating gaps.
Observing water in space from the ground is challenging because water vapor in Earth's atmosphere obstructs weak signals from space. However, the ALMA network, composed of dozens of radio antennas on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile at nearly 16,404 feet above sea level in a dry environment, enabled this groundbreaking discovery.
