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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.'"

11 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 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. Hot wet young star systems?? by Froboz23 · · Score: 5, Funny

    How does NASA let this kind of filth be posted on their websites? Doesn't the Administration have censors to prevent these kinds of morally dubious scientific discoveries?

    Like hell if I'm ever going to let my children visit that star system.

    --
    Take off every Sig. For great justice.
    1. Re:Hot wet young star systems?? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2, Funny

      Like hell if I'm ever going to let my children visit that star system.

      But they will be thousands of years old by then.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
  3. Or, alternatively... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    What if you stopped taking drugs for five minutes?

  4. So... by Pluvius · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess this means that Spitzer has discovered a spritzer?

    Rob

  5. If we had better telescopes . . . by StefanJ · · Score: 3, Funny

    . . . we'd see giant terraforming spacecraft from competing interstellar coalitions laying down clouds of spores among the proto-planets in the hopes that life that arises on future worlds will be of their bio-tradition.

    Well, not really, but it's cool to think of.

  6. It's a Steam Punk thing. by ScentCone · · Score: 3, Funny

    *clears throat, goes for slightly maniacal tone*

    Electric Universe! Come on, man, just think about it. It takes time to develope these things. Before we had the fancy, new Electric Universe, we had the Water-Powered Universe.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  7. 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?

  8. oh noes! by larry+bagina · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just hope it's not chocolate rain!

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  9. water + dust ... by ozbird · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... = mud. You might have thought Glastonbury was muddy, but that's just peanuts to space...

    Seriously, this might solve how a disc of cigarette smoke-sized particles can condense to form planetesimals, and thus planets.