How are planets formed? Here are the new findings

With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope by NASA, scientists have come up with a groundbreaking discovery that reveals the secrets behind the formation of planets. Webb looked into the water vapor present in the protoplanetary disks, and it confirmed the occurrence of a physical process that involves the drifting of solids from the outer area of the disk into the rocky planet zone.

Theories till now have stated that the fundamental origination of planets should be through the icy pebbles that are formed in the outer areas of the protoplanetary disks. However, the theories demand those icy pebbles to drift inward toward the star because of the friction in the gaseous disk, thereby giving both water and solids to the planets.

An important prediction of this planet-formation theory is that as the icy pebbles come inside the warmer area within the "snowline", they should be releasing cold water vapor in huge amounts. Surprisingly, this is what Webb also observed.

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Andrea Banzatti, the principal investigator belonging from the Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, expressed that "Webb finally revealed the connection between water vapor in the inner disk and the drift of icy pebbles from the outer disk."

 "This finding opens up exciting prospects for studying rocky planet formation with Webb!" Banzatti added.

How did Webb help?

The researchers made use of the Mid-Infrared Instrument of Webb to study a total of four disks. Two of these disks were expanded around stars that are similar to the Sun, while the other two were compact. It is estimated that all these four stars were about 2 to 3 million years old. The estimation makes these stars seem pretty young.

It is expected that the two compact disks will see pebble drifts. However, it is expected that the extended disks will have their pebbles retained in various rings as far as six times Neptune's orbit.

The observations of Webb were designed to determine if compact disks hold a higher water abundance in the rocky planet area. The team made use of MIRI's Medium-Resolution Spectrometer as it is sensitive to vapors in the disks.

Any time the pebbles experience a pressure bump, they drift and get collected there. Such pressure traps impede the pebble drift. It is assumed that this happens in large disks with gaps and rings.

Current research states that large planets may lead to rings of increased pressure where pebbles tend to get collected. The research also proposes that this could be the role of the planet Jupiter in our solar system.

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