2023-06-27 03:15:33
These images show the area of the Orion Nebula that contains a protoplanetary disk known as d203-506, in which a new molecule called methyl cation was detected. NASA, CSA, M. ZAMANI / ESA / WEBB, THE PDRS4ALL ERS TEAM
A few days before celebrating its first anniversary of observation on July 11, the James Webb Telescope, operated by the American, Canadian, and European space agencies, has once once more surprised astronomers. Using these new eyes located 1 million miles away from the Earth, astronomers are making one discovery following another, leaving them with new questions to be answered.
Read more Article reserved for our subscribers James Webb Telescope reveals massive galaxies formed shortly following the Big Bang
This time, James Webb’s instruments have revealed some unexpected insight into the origins of solar systems like our own. The discovery was made within the Orion Nebula, a gigantic cluster of stars located around 1,350 light-years from Earth, inside a “microscopic” detail (a hundred times the distance between the Earth and the Sun) called d203-506. This is a disk of gas and dust, heated to around 1,800°F and surrounding a low-mass star five to ten times lighter than the Sun. Our solar system and similar solar systems may very well have looked like this “pancake” when they were young – these gases and specks of dust then gradually come together to form larger bodies.
An international team of over 50 researchers and close to 30 institutes detailed their findings on this surprising discovery in the journal Nature on June 26. It is a molecule never seen in space and a crucial precursor for synthesizing complex organic molecules with several carbon atoms with nitrogen and oxygen.
This is one of the simplest molecules with one carbon atom, three hydrogen atoms, and a positive charge. “The existence of methyl cation was predicted back in the 1970s, but it had never been detected within a disk, justifying its nickname of the ’Holy Grail,’” said Olivier Berné, a researcher with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the IRAP, a French research center in astrophysical and planetology located in Toulouse. Its properties also made it undetectable by terrestrial radio telescopes, such as the ALMA telescope in Chile, which has discovered some of the most exotic molecules.
Unknown signal
“We’re very happy, it’s truly a scientific adventure. A real investigation,” said Berné. “It was like a treasure hunt,” according to Benoît Tabone, also on the mission. During their investigation, the researchers took advantage of two features of the James Webb telescope.
Its infrared sensitivity allows users to see far into the past to collect more “young” objects such as protoplanetary disks. Researchers can also rely on its ability to take images and, more importantly, break down the light received into its various wavelengths, like a prism. This feature helps researchers identify the chemical elements present in the regions observed, as they emit radiation specific to each of them.
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