JWST Sees Frozen Water, Ammonia, Methane and Other Ices in a Protostellar Nebula By Nancy_A
The discovery was made using a technique that studies how starlight from beyond the molecular cloud was absorbed by icy molecules at specific infrared wavelengths visible to Webb. Astronomers used light from a background star, named NIR38, to illuminate the dark cloud. JWST’s instruments were able to eek out the chemical fingerprints known as absorption spectra which can be compared with laboratory data to identify which ices are present in the molecular cloud.
In addition to simple ices like water, the team was able to identify frozen forms of a wide range of molecules, from carbon dioxide, ammonia, and methane, to the simplest complex organic molecule methanol. This is the most comprehensive census to date of the icy ingredients available to make future generations of stars and planets.
“We simply couldn’t have observed these ices without Webb,” elaborated Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, who was involved in this research. “The ices show up as dips against a continuum of background starlight. In regions that are this cold and dense, much of the light from the background star is blocked and Webb’s exquisite sensitivity was necessary to detect the starlight and therefore identify the ices in the molecular cloud.
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