NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Reveals the Coldest Interstellar Ice Cloud Ever Discovered

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has uncovered the coldest interstellar ice ever discovered, which contains complex molecules that could one day form the basis for a new generation of planets and stars.

The newly discovered cloud of ancient ice orbits within the Milky Way roughly 630 light-years from Earth. As reported by Space.com, the cloud is thought to boast a frigid temperature of -440 degrees Fahrenheit (-263 degrees Celsius), which makes it the coldest mass of interstellar ice ever seen. The findings are detailed in a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. 

“The ices show up as dips against a continuum of background starlight,” said JWST project scientist Klaus Pontoppidan from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore in a statement posted on the NASA website.

“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.”

The new data represents the most in-depth analysis of an interstellar cloud that could one day coalesce to form a new generation of planets and stars. Webb was able to observe the stars in the background of the vista in order to see which wavelengths of the infrared stellar light were absorbed as they passed through the frozen debris.

By analysing the light from the stars in this way, the team behind the study were able to isolate the signatures of numerous elements frozen in the ice. These ranged from simplistic molecules such as methanol to more complex ones like ammonia and carbonyl sulfide, some of which are thought to be key components needed for a world to generate a planetary atmosphere, and thus increase the possibility that it could be hospitable to life.

“Our results provide insights into the initial, dark chemistry stage of the formation of ice on the interstellar dust grains that will grow into the centimetre-sized pebbles from which planets form in disks,” comments Melissa McClure, lead author of the new paper from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. “These observations open a new window on the formation pathways for the simple and complex molecules that are needed to make the building blocks of life.”

The scientists were then able to estimate the amount of the oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and myriad other materials present in the cloud. The quantity of the elements was higher than had been previously observed in other clouds, but lower than the team were expecting. 

According to the researchers, it is possible that the missing elemental mass could be locked away inside of rocks or other sooty materials also present in the interstellar cloud. This would be significant in the evolutionary path of any potential planet that could form out of such a cloud, as the material that the elements are locked away in plays a part in dictating whether they will eventually form part of the crust or atmosphere of a future exoplanet.

“Our identification of complex organic molecules, like methanol and potentially ethanol, also suggests that the many star and planet systems developing in this particular cloud will inherit molecules in a fairly advanced chemical state,” explained Will Rocha, one of the authors of the new paper, and an astronomer at Leiden Observatory.

“This could mean that the presence of prebiotic molecules in planetary systems is a common result of star formation, rather than a unique feature of our own Solar System.”

Moving forward the scientists hope to use Webb to figure out the slow process by which these icy materials find their way into the bodies and atmospheres of distant exoplanets. In the meantime be sure to check out IGN’s gallery of the most spectacular images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope to date.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); Science: F. Sun (Steward Observatory), Z. Smith (Open University), and the Ice Age ERS Team.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer