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Rain Falls On A New Star

September 2, 2007 on 1:54 am | In Astronomy, Stars |

Astronomers have discovered several Earth-sized oceans of water that have fallen into a planet-forming region around an embryonic star. Dan Watson at the University of Rochester believes they are the first to find and see a brief stage of disk formation - the way in which a planetary system’s supply of water arrives. The discovery is the first-ever glimpse of material directly feeding a protoplanetary disk.

The star in question (IRAS 4B) lies in a picturesque nebula (NGC 1333) about 1000 light years away. It is one of a list of 30 of young protostars known. IRAS 4B is the only one of the thirty stars to show any sign of such material, as seen by the infrared spectrum of water vapor. The characteristics of IRAS4B’s infrared spectrum can be explained by material falling from the protostar onto a surrounding disk. This disk-accretion shock is the mechanism of the disks from which all planetary systems are thought to originate.

Among the details known so far for the rate of rainfall onto the disk, which is about 23 Earth masses per year. The area of the puddle is greater than the size of the orbit of Pluto.These results will help astronomers assess the planet-forming potential of IRAS4B’s disk. This in turn will help us learn about the earliest stages of our own solar system.