Webb Telescope Spots , Frozen Water and Molecules, in Distant Molecular Cloud .
Gizmodo reports that NASA's Webb telescope has
detected water ice and frozen complex molecules
about 630 light-years from Earth in a molecular cloud.
According to the team,
the freezing observations are the
deepest, coldest yet seen in such a cloud.
A molecular cloud is a huge, dusty region of space that
typically serve as stellar nurseries as they contain
all of the ingredients necessary for stars to form. .
These clouds are also home to organic molecules. .
In 2022, scientists analyzing a molecular cloud at the center of our galaxy found evidence of the building blocks
of RNA, a molecule shared by all living cells.
The most recent frozen molecular
cloud contained water, methane, ammonia
and complex molecules such as methanol.
The team's findings were
published on January 23 in
the journal 'Nature Astronomy.'.
Gizmodo reports that the observation
of molecular clouds comes as
part of Webb's Ice Age project. .
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 centimeter-sized pebbles
from which planets form in disks, Melissa McClure, Astronomer at Leiden
Observatory in the Netherlands, via 'Gizmodo'.
We simply couldn’t have observed these
ices without Webb. Webb’s exquisite
sensitivity was necessary to detect
the starlight and therefore identify
the ices in the molecular cloud, Klaus Pontodippan, Webb project scientist
and a co-author of the research, via 'Gizmodo'