In a feat never accomplished before, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has captured a resolved image of a protoplanetary disc water snow line.
In a feat never before accomplished, the ALMA telescope has captured a resolved image of a protoplanetary disc water snow line.
The feature occurs when the matter around a young star chills to snow-producing temps, and the star itself suddenly brightens, pushing the line outward.
In the case of V883 Orionis, the star hosting the event, the water snow line was pushed so far out, observing it became possible.
Said the lead author of a study about the happening, “The ALMA observations came as a surprise to us. Our observations were designed to look for disc fragmentation leading to planet formation. We saw none of that; instead, we found what looks like a ring…This illustrates well the transformational power of ALMA, which delivers exciting results even if they are not the ones we were looking for.”
