Coldest ice ever recorded discovered with “Webb”.

At minus 263 degrees Celsius, the ice was only about ten degrees above absolute zero, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. This discovery is of great scientific importance, as ice in space was said to have played a central role in the formation of the universe.

Space ice forms long before planets themselves form. It forms deep in interstellar nebulae — clouds of molecular gas and dust that eventually collide to form planets. In these clouds it is so cold that frost can form on dust particles.

Found in a molecular cloud 500 light-years away
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, picture above), the researchers have now discovered ice that lies deeper in such a molecular cloud than ever before. In the study, the team focused on the molecular cloud called Chameleon I, which is more than 500 light-years from Earth, where dozens of young stars are currently forming. They are located near the center, in a particularly cold, densely populated region that is difficult to study.

“These measurements were only possible with Webb’s high-precision infrared spectrographs, which can accurately detect and break down radiation of these wavelengths,” said study co-author Maria Drozdovskaya of the University of Bern in a university press release.

Ice cream contains, so to speak, “the ingredients of life”
The researchers have already obtained initial insights from the space ice. They measured the presence of various chemical elements in the ice. carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur (see graph above). “These elements are important components of prebiotic molecules such as simple amino acids – and thus ingredients of life, so to speak,” says Drozdovskaya.

The team found fewer of these elements than they expected compared to the density of the cloud. This indicates that these elements are not exclusively found in the icy components of the molecular clouds, but may lurk elsewhere as well.