Semi-heavy water ice detected around young sunlike star for first time

# TLDR:

* A team led by astronomers Katie Slavicinska from Leiden University in the Netherlands and John Tobin from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia, U.S., utilized the James Webb Space Telescope to achieve the first robust detection of semi-heavy water ice (HDO) with a high deuteration ratio around the young, sun-like protostar L1527 IRS.
* This groundbreaking discovery strongly supports the hypothesis that a significant portion of our solar system’s water originated as ice in cold, dark clouds predating the Sun’s formation, as the detected HDO ratio is consistent with that found in comets and other primitive solar system objects.
* The findings, highlighted by co-author Ewine van Dishoeck, a professor of astronomy at Leiden University, reinforce the idea that water ice largely survives the star formation process, with future observations led by Slavicinska and Tom Megeath, a professor of astronomy at the University of Toledo in the U.S., planned to further investigate potential chemical variations.

Read more: [https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/addb45](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/addb45)