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Water Vapor Seen 'Raining' Onto Young Star System

Posted by Zonk on from the the-weather-outside-is-frightful dept.

tonganqn writes "Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope scientists have discovered huge amounts of water vapor in the young star system, called NGC 1333-IRAS 4B. From the article: 'The water vapor is pouring down from the system's natal cloud and smacking into a dusty disk where planets are thought to form. The observations provide the first direct look at how water, an essential ingredient for life as we know it, begins to make its way into planets, possibly even rocky ones like our own.'"

5 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Oxygen and Hydrogen by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I can imagine large clouds of thin Oxygen and Hydrogen gas. But how do you get the gas dense enough to actually react. In those gaseous nebulas, the "gas" is nearly a vacuum. And water isn't going to come from anywhere but gaseous hydrogen and oxygen.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:Oxygen and Hydrogen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You're thinking backwards. What is actually thought to be the case is that this water vapor is the result of the destruction of a large ice-body, typically a comet. There have been documented cases of two comets colliding, with the result being a relatively concentrated volume of hydrogen and oxygen. These comets are themselves thought to be formed from the polar regions of planets or satellites that have themselves been damaged or destroyed by impacts with other objects.

    2. Re:Oxygen and Hydrogen by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Interesting

      But how do you get the gas dense enough to actually react.

      And then, how did our solar system get gas dense enough to form solid ice in massive planet size bodies like Pluto, et al?

      I don't know either. Perhaps we are only seeing a minute fraction of the gas in that area. The water is a minor condensate, and the comets/planets are a minor condensate from the water.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
  2. Nobody proved Einstein wrong... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The more I read about the discoveries in the solar system the more I'm inclined to believe Einstein's remark: "The micro cosmos is the macro cosmos". iow; we might be all part of an enormous chair or other substance. Think about it; even if you burn a chair you might destroy the object but what about the molecules or better yet; the individual atoms? What if the 4th dimension simply lies in size which, in some unknown scheme, is "wrapped" and thus endless ?

  3. One in Thirty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Why did only one stellar embryo of 30 show signs of water? The astronomers say this is most likely because NGC 1333-IRAS 4B is in just the right orientation for Spitzer to view its dense core. Also, this particular watery phase of a star's life is short-lived and hard to catch."

    IANAA. Is this a reasonable explanation?