Oceans of water in nearby star!

Herschel Space Obsevatory, a European Space Agency and associated with NASA, finds oceans of water in disk of nearby star. The information collected by this observatory helped the astronomers to detect for the first time, cold water vapor enveloping a dusty disk around a young star.
The discoveries suggest that water-covered planets like Earth must be common in this world for it has been found that the disk, whish is poised to develop into a solar system, contains great quantities of water.

Previously warm water vapors in planet-forming disks close to a central star have been found by the scientists but untill now evidences for vast quantities of water extending out into the cooler, far reaches of disks where comets take shape had not been seen.The more availability of water in disks for icy comets to form greaters the chances of reaching of that large amount to new planets through impacts.

 Astronomer Michiel Hojerheijde of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands said, "Our observations of this cold vapor indicate enough water exists in the disk to fill thosands of earth oceans."

The star with this waterlogged disk, called TW Hydrae, is 10 million years old and located about 175 light years away from Earth, in the constellation Hydra. The origination of this frigid, water-haze detected by Hogerheijde and his team is thought to be from ice-coated grains of dusk near the disk's surface. Herschel's Hetrodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared, or HIFI, detects that the ultraviolent light from the star causes some water molecules to break free of this ic, creating a thin layer of gas with a light signature.

"These are the most sensitive HIFI observations to date," said Paul Goldsmith, NASA project scientist for the Herschel Space Observatory at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laborotory in Pasadena, California. He also adds, "It is a testament to the instrument builders that such weak signals can be detected."

TW Hydrae is an orange dwarf star, somewhat smaller and cooler than our yellow-white sun. The star has been encircled by a giant disk that has a size nearly 200 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Astronomers believe that, over the next few million of years, matter within the disk will collide and grow into planets, asteriods and other cosmic bodies. Comets will be assembled by dust and ice particles. Icy comets are likely to deposit much of the water they contain on freshly created worlds through impacts, giving rise to oceans with the evolution of new solar system.

Astronomers thus belive that there may be many young star systems which are represented presently by TW Hydra, providing new insights on how planets with abudant water could form throughout the universe.

(Source: nasa.gov)

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