James Webb telescope discovers frozen water around alien star
In a milestone discovery, astronomers have announced that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected water ice drifting through a dusty ring of debris surrounding a distant, sunlike star.
Astronomers have long suspected that water, especially in its frozen form, might be common in the cold, outer reaches of planetary systems beyond our own. That's because in our own solar system, Saturn's moon Enceladus, Jupiter's Ganymede and Europa, and other icy moons are known to contain vast amounts of frozen water. Some of these moons are even thought to harbor subsurface oceans of liquid water, fueling ongoing discussions about their potential to support life.
Now, with JWST's confirmation last week, scientists say they can begin exploring how water — a key ingredient for life as we know it — is distributed and transported in other planetary systems.
The new discovery centers on a star called HD 181327, located about 155 light-years away, in the constellation Telescopium. At just 23 million years old, HD 181327 is a cosmic infant compared with our 4.6 billion-year-old sun, and it's encircled by a broad, dusty debris disk that is rich in small, early building blocks of planets.
"HD 181327 is a very active system," study co-author Christine Chen, a research scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, said in a NASA statement. Frequent collisions between icy bodies in this disk are constantly stirring up fine particles of dusty water ice, which are "perfectly sized for Webb to detect," Chen said.
The findings, published May 15 in the journal Nature, suggest these "dirty snowballs" of ice and dust could eventually play a key role in delivering water to future rocky planets that may form over the next few hundred million years. As planets take shape within the disk, comets and other icy bodies could collide with the young worlds and shower them with water — a process thought to have helped seed early Earth with the water that sustains life today.
Related: Did the James Webb telescope really find evidence of alien life? Here's the truth about exoplanet K2-18b.
RELATED STORIES
—Astronomers discover doomed planet shedding a Mount Everest's worth of material every orbit, leaving behind a comet-like tail
—James Webb telescope could find signs of life on alien 'hycean' ocean worlds
—4 tiny, Earth-like planets found circling 2nd-closest star system to us — and could be visited by future human generations
JWST revealed that most of the distant star system's water ice is concentrated in the outer regions of the disk, where temperatures are cold enough for it to remain stable. Closer in, the ice becomes increasingly scarce, likely vaporized by the star's ultraviolet radiation or locked away in larger rocky bodies known as planetesimals, which remain invisible to JWST's infrared instruments.
According to the research team, the debris disk around HD 181327 resembles what the Kuiper Belt — the vast, doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies beyond Neptune — likely looked like billions of years ago during the early stages of our solar system's evolution.
"What's most striking is that this data looks similar to the telescope's other recent observations of Kuiper Belt objects in our own solar system," Chen said in the statement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Next astronauts could be heading to the space station in week: What to know about Crew-11
The next group of astronauts could be heading to space in a week, where they will relieve a group of spacefarers at the International Space Station who played a critical role in bringing the Boeing Starliner saga to an end. The mission, known as Crew-11, is the latest in a series of joint ventures between NASA and SpaceX to send astronauts to the outpost, where they spend months at a time conducting scientific research only possible in orbit. The four-person crew, which includes two NASA astronauts, are the first humans to fly to space since a relatively brief private voyage known as Axiom Mission 4 came to an end earlier in July after 20 days. The arrival of the astronauts selected for the Crew-11 mission at the space station will also pave the way for four others to leave. Their Crew-10 predecessors arrived at the ISS in mid-March in a headline-grabbing mission that set the stage for the long-awaited departure of the NASA astronauts − Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams − who crewed the ill-fated Starliner space capsule the year before. Here's everything to know about the Crew-11 mission and its impending launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. What is the SpaceX Crew-11 mission? As the name suggests, Crew-11 is NASA and SpaceX's 11th science expedition to the International Space Station. The missions, most of which last about six months, are contracted under NASA's commercial crew program. The program allows the U.S. space agency to pay SpaceX to launch and transport astronauts and cargo to orbit aboard the company's own vehicles, freeing up NASA to focus on its Artemis lunar program and other spaceflight missions, including future crewed voyages to Mars. When was the first NASA, SpaceX Crew mission? What is the Dragon? The first of SpaceX's Crew missions ferrying astronauts to the orbital outpost on its Dragon capsule began in 2020. Standing nearly 27 feet tall and about 13 feet wide, Dragon capsules can carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, though most of SpaceX's Crew missions feature a crew of four. The Dragon is also the only U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station. For that reason, NASA selected the Dragon to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts who rode the Boeing Starliner capsule to the space station in June 2024 for the vehicle's inaugural human spaceflight test. Certifying the Starliner capsule for operation would eventually give NASA a second vehicle in addition to Dragon for regular human spaceflights to orbit. Who are the astronauts on the Crew-11 mission? The Crew-11 mission includes four spacefarers: Mission commander , a NASA astronaut from Virginia making her first spaceflight Pilot , a NASA astronaut from Pennsylvania making his fourth trip to space Mission specialist , a Japanese astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut making his second trip to the space station Mission specialist Oleg Platonov, a Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut making his first spaceflight Crew-11 astronauts reassigned after Boeing Starliner failure In an interesting twist, Cardman, Fincke and Yui all experienced major spaceflight assignment changes as a result of the Boeing Starliner debacle. Fincke and Yui were both originally selected to fly on the Starliner's crew rotation mission had the spacecraft's inaugural human flight test in June 2024 been a success. Fincke was also the backup astronaut on a flight test for which Wilmore and Williams were ultimately selected. As for Cardman, she would have flown on the Crew-9 mission in September 2024 before she and NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson were bumped from the mission. Instead of a full contingent, only NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov traveled to the space station to leave two seats for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight. The decision was made when NASA opted to undock the troubled Starliner capsule without its crew, leaving Wilmore and Williams in need of a ride home. When will NASA, SpaceX launch Crew-11 for ISS? The Crew-10 mission is due to get off the ground no earlier than 12:09 p.m. ET Thursday, July 31, from near Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to NASA. SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active in the world – to launch the crew missions from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Once in orbit, the SpaceX Dragon capsule that the astronauts are aboard then separates from the rocket, using its own thrusters to continue onto the space station. When will the Crew-10 astronauts depart space station, return to Earth? The arrival of Cardman, Fincke, Yui and Platonov will ultimately pave the way for their predecessors, the Crew-10 contingent, to depart the space station and head back to Earth. NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain arrived March 16 at the station with JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov as part of the Crew-10 mission. That mission made headlines for its role in paving the way for the NASA astronauts who crewed the doomed Boeing Starliner to depart with the Crew-9 mission. But the Crew-10 astronauts won't leave right away. What follows upon the arrival of any astronauts is a brief handover period in which the new crew members are familiarized with the orbital laboratory and station operations. McClain, Ayers, Onishi and Peskov will then depart a few days later on the same Dragon capsule that transported them to the space station. Mission teams will also have to review weather conditions off the coast of California, where the Dragon will eventually make a water landing. Who else is at the International Space Station? Another three spacefarers are also living and working about the International Space Station as members of Expedition 73. That includes NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who reached the outpost in April 2025 with cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Florida Today Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is Crew-11? SpaceX astronauts prepare for space station mission
The Verge
2 hours ago
- The Verge
A new satellite could help improve disaster response.
Posted Jul 25, 2025 at 12:30 AM UTC Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Justine Calma Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Justine Calma Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Climate Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Environment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All NASA Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Science Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Space
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Releases Statement After Starlink Global Outage
has issued a statement following a major global outage that knocked thousands of Starlink users offline late Thursday night. Reports of the disruption began around 3:00 PM EST/9:00 p.m. CET, with over 60,000 users flagging connectivity issues on the Down Detector website. Many described the Starlink incident as a 'total blackout,' with service interruptions reported across Europe, the United States, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Affected areas included locations as widespread as Colombia, Sardinia, Stockholm, and New Hampshire. Elon Musk Responds After Starlink Suffers Widespread Global Outage Starlink, the satellite internet division of Musk's SpaceX, acknowledged the widespread outage in a post on X (formerly Twitter), 'Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution. We appreciate your patience. We'll share an update once this issue is resolved.' Shortly after, Musk reassured users that the problem was being addressed. 'Service will be restored shortly. Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn't happen again,' he wrote on X. The cause of the outage has not yet been disclosed, and it remains unclear how long full restoration will take. Longest Outage In Starlink's History? As the network disruption pushed past the two-hour mark (as of 5:45 PM EST) experts began to speculate that this could be Starlink's most significant service interruption to date. 'The Starlink outage is now in excess of two hours in duration, making this incident Starlink's longest outage since becoming a major service provider,' Doug Madory, Director of Internet Analysis at Kentik, said, per The Independent. The outage adds to mounting concerns surrounding Starlink's long-term stability, especially in light of recent NASA research revealing how solar activity could be threatening the company's rapidly expanding satellite network. Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center found that geomagnetic storms, triggered by solar eruptions, are heating Earth's upper atmosphere, increasing drag and causing Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit to fall faster than expected. Musk-Linked Platforms Facing Mounting Tech Woes This isn't the first time a Musk-led platform has faced major operational disruptions. Earlier this year, Musk revealed that X had been the target of what he described as a 'massive cyber-attack.' The breach led to temporary service outages and sparked concern over the platform's digital security. 'We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources,' Musk posted at the time, adding, 'Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.' The incident raised questions about the cybersecurity infrastructure behind Musk's growing digital empire, especially as his platforms play an increasingly critical role in both communication and global connectivity. Frustration Mounts As Users Sound Off Online As the Starlink outage stretched on, frustrated users took to social media to air their grievances, some through memes. 'Starlink is down worldwide... Sucks to live in the mountain off-grid... @Starlink do something,' one user wrote, highlighting the connectivity struggles faced by remote users who rely heavily on the satellite service. Another chimed in, 'Starlink crashing mid-war is a hell of a reminder that tech bros make lousy defense contractors,' pointing to the broader implications of relying on private tech for critical infrastructure. Some users directed their ire straight at Musk. 'Yo Mr. Elon can you give me my internet back, how tf does every single starlink satellite go out worldwide without notice,' one person posted. Others demanded compensation, with one user writing, 'You owe us all a refund for today… better see a discount on that next bill or we will have issues. You failed to provide your service.' Starlink's Satellite Network Expands Global Internet Access To 130+ Countries Starlink currently provides mobile broadband internet to more than 130 countries and territories through its growing network of satellites. With over 12,000 satellites planned, and ambitions to expand to more than 34,000, Starlink aims to create a global high-speed internet network, even in the world's most remote locations. Solve the daily Crossword
