Astronomers using the ALMA radiotelescope have uncovered an important missing link in the history of the Solar System's water.
Astronomers struggle to see the detail in young solar systems like the V883 Orionis system. The activity is hidden inside the veil of gas and dust. But new observations with the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array detected water vapour in the system, and the scientists behind a new study also measured the water’s ‘chemical fingerprint.’” and it’s published in the journal Nature. The lead author is John J. Tobin from the USA’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
What sets this study apart from others is that the researchers detected water vapour a great distance from V883 Orionis. Not only did they detect the water, they measured its chemical fingerprint. “The warm nature of V883 Ori’s disk enables us to characterize its water reservoir with spatially-resolved observations, unlike most proto-planetary disks,” the authors explain in their research.
It takes a lot of sleuthing to untangle what’s happening in a solar system around a young protostar like V883 Orionis. ALMA has the power to observe the molecular emission lines of not only different water molecules, but also molecules like methanol. The location of each type of molecule reveals the nature of the system.
Previous research shows that at least some of Earth’s water was delivered by comets early in Earth’s history. This study shows that the water’s history stretched back to before the Sun formed, illustrating its epic journey that lasts millions of years before ending up as part of Earth’s biosphere.
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