James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Water and Molecules for Rocky Planet Formation in the Crayfish Nebula

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have observed the presence of water and molecules necessary for the formation of rocky planets in the highly irradiated region of the Crayfish Nebula. This discovery, which is part of the XUE program, expands the known environments in which rocky planets can form, challenging previous beliefs and providing new insights into exoplanet diversity.

Astronomers discovered a group of molecules that are one of the building blocks of rocky planets.

Space is a harsh environment, but some areas are harsher than others. The star-forming region, known as the Crayfish Nebula, hosts some of the most massive stars in our galaxy. Massive stars are hotter and therefore emit greater amounts of ultraviolet radiation. This ultraviolet light illuminates planet-forming disks around nearby stars. Astronomers predict that ultraviolet radiation will break down many chemical molecules. However, the James Webb Space Telescope discovered a variety of molecules in one of these disks, including water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide and acetylene. These molecules are one of the building blocks of rocky planets.

This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets are forming. Credit: Esso

The Webb Space Telescope reveals that rocky planets can form in extreme environments

An international team of astronomers has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to make the first observations of water and other molecules in the rocky, highly irradiated interior of a planet in one of the most extreme environments in our galaxy. These results suggest that conditions for the formation of rocky planets can occur in a wider range of possible environments than previously thought.

First results of the XUE program

These are the first results from the James Webb Extreme Ultraviolet (XUE) space telescope, which focuses on characterizing planet-forming disks (massive, rotating clouds of gas, dust and rock where planets form and evolve) in massive stars. form a region. These regions likely represent the environments in which most planetary systems formed. Understanding the influence of the environment on planet formation is important for scientists to gain insight into the diversity of different types of exoplanets.

Study of the Crayfish Nebula

The XUE program targets a total of 15 disks in three regions of the Crayfish Nebula (also known as NGC 6357), a large emission nebula located about 5,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. The Crayfish Nebula is one of the newest and closest massive star-forming complexes, hosting some of the most massive stars in our galaxy. Massive stars are hotter and therefore emit more ultraviolet radiation. This could disperse the gas, making the disk’s lifespan estimated at just one million years. Thanks to Webb, astronomers can now study the influence of ultraviolet radiation on the inner terrestrial planet-forming regions of protoplanetary disks around stars like our Sun.

Unique web capabilities

“Webb is the only telescope with the spatial resolution and sensitivity to study planet-forming disks in regions of massive star formation,” said team leader Maria Claudia Ramírez Tanos of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany.

Astronomers aimed to characterize the physical properties and chemical composition of planet-forming rocky disk regions in the Crayfish Nebula using the medium-resolution spectrometer on Webb’s mid-infrared instrument (MIRI). These first results focus on a protoplanetary disk called XUE 1, located in the Pismis 24 star cluster.

“Only MIRI’s wavelength range and spectral resolution allow us to examine the molecular inventory and physical conditions of the warm gas and dust from which rocky planets form,” added team member Arjan Beck of Stockholm University in Sweden.

Given its location near several massive stars in NGC 6357, scientists estimate that XUE 1 was constantly exposed to large amounts of ultraviolet radiation throughout its life. However, in this extreme environment, the team still discovered a group of molecules that form the building blocks of terrestrial planets.

“We found that the inner disk around XUE 1 is very similar to that found in nearby star-forming regions,” said team member Reins Waters of Radboud University in the Netherlands. “We detected water and other molecules such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide and acetylene. However, the emissions found were weaker than some models predicted. This may mean a small outer radius of the disk.”

Lars Kuijpers from Radboud University added: “We were surprised and delighted because this is the first time these molecules have been detected under such extreme conditions.” The team also found small, partially crystallized silicate dust on the disk’s surface. It is thought to be the building block of rocky planets.

Implications for the formation of rocky planets

These results are good news for rocky planet formation, as the science team found that conditions in the inner disk are similar to well-studied disks in nearby star-forming regions, where only low-mass stars form. This suggests that rocky planets can form in a much wider range of environments than previously thought.

The team points out that remaining observations from the XUE program are critical to identifying similarities between these conditions.

“XUE 1 shows us that the conditions necessary for rocky planets to form do exist, so the next step is to examine how common these conditions are,” Ramirez-Taños said. “We will monitor other disks in the same area to determine the frequency of observations of this condition.”

These results have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Reference: “XUE: Molecular inventory of the deep regions of highly radiated protoplanetary disks” by María Claudia Ramírez-Taños, Arjan Beck, Lars Kuijpers, Reins Waters, Christian Goebel, Thomas Henning, Inga Kamp, Thomas Prebisch, Konstantin F. Getman, Germán Chaparro, Pablo Cuartas-Restrepo, Alex D. Cotter, Eric D. Vigilson, Sierra L. Grant, Thomas J. Elena Sabbi, Benoit Taboni, Andrew J. Winter, Anna F. McLeod, Roy van Bokel and Circus E. Van Terwisja, 30 November 2023, the Astrophysical Journal Letter.
doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad03f8

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s leading space science observatory. Webb solves the mysteries of our solar system, looks beyond distant worlds around other stars, and explores the mysterious structure and origins of the universe and our place in it. WEB is an international program led by NASA with its partners the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.

2023-12-01 15:37:41
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