An international team of astrophysicists from the US, UK and Germany has achieved confirmation of a long-standing hypothesis about the formation of planets using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Astrophysics Journal Letters (AJL).
New data from JWST supports the “ice pebble drift” theory, which proposes that clouds of cosmic dust and rock are transformed into new worlds by the ice covering them. When pieces of material collide, they lose momentum and together they begin to fall towards the star, into a hotter region where the ice evaporates. Over time, rocky planets are born from this small ring of debris and water vapor.
Until recently, scientists did not know exactly what role water vapor actually played in these processes, and the hypothesis was based on speculation.
However, observations with James Webb showed that icy materials can indeed move across protoplanetary disks, and the smaller the disk, the easier it is for frozen particles to move. As the flow of ice pebbles continues to flow from the outside in, it provides both solids and water, allowing the formation of a new planet.
“In the past, we had a very static picture of planet formation; It’s as if there were some isolated regions where planets appeared. We now have evidence that these regions can interact with each other. It is assumed that the same thing once happened in our solar system,” said planetary scientist Colette Salik, one of the study’s authors.
Formerly “James Webb” discovered The most distant twin galaxy of the Milky Way.