A group of scientists photograph snow line in space - CNN

Washington. (EFE). – With the help of the new ALMA telescope deployed in Atacama, Chile, astronomers have captured the first image of a line snow in space on a nascent solar system, according to an article published today in the journal Science .

As a certain height in the Andes early snowpack temperature change indicates a “snow line” in space could play a role in the formation and chemical composition of the planets surrounding a star.

line snow in a solar system where temperatures reach freezing and collect water and other chemicals that otherwise would vapors.

Astronomers believe that snow lines in the play space a vital role in the formation of the planets because moisture helps frozen dust grains clump together. With the help of the interferometer known as Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA for its acronym in English) in Chile, astronomers imaged by radial wavelengths of snowline carbon monoxide around TW Hydrae, a young star about 175 million light years from Earth.

The TW Hydrae , in the constellation of Hydra, is considered the infant solar system closest to our solar system. “We had evidence of snow lines in our solar system, but now we can see one with our own eyes. This is very interesting,” said Edwin Bergin, professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan.

The different chemical compounds are frozen at different distances from a central star. In the solar system where Earth is water freezes at a distance about five times the distance from Earth to the Sun This is the region where orbits Jupiter. Snow lines of various chemical compounds can be linked to the formation of specific types of planets.

line carbon monoxide in our system corresponds to the orbit of Neptune and could also mark the site from which would form icy bodies such as comets and dwarf planets Pluto type, according to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. So far snow lines were detected only by their spectral sign ature. Never direct images were taken so that its precise location and extent could not be determined.

“ALMA has given us the first real image of a line of snow around a young star, which is very exciting because it speaks about the very early period in the history of our own solar system, “said Chunhua” Charlie “Qi, a researcher at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

” Now we can see previously hidden details about the frozen outer edges of another solar system, one that has much in common with our own solar system when he was less than ten million years of existence. “

It has been difficult to capture images snow lines because only formed in the central, relatively narrow, of a planet-forming disk. Above and below this region, solar radiation remains at a higher temperature gases which prevent ice forming. A hot gas outer cocoon prevents astronomers to see inside the disc where the gas is frozen. So, instead, pointed the search to a different molecule called diazenilio .

Carbon monoxide destroys diazenilio so that can only be detected in regions where the gas is frozen. The diazenilio shines in the millimeter portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and the brightness can detect radio telescopes like ALMA.

diazenilio Tracing the distribution of astronomers identified a border to approximately thirty astronomical units of TW Hydrae. An astronomical unit is the average distance between Earth and the Sun

This snow line , in particular, is interesting because it takes the ice for carbon monoxide formation of methanol, a building block in the complete organic molecules, which are essential for life.

Comets and asteroids may transport these molecules to the formation of new planets similar to Earth , sowing there the ingredients for life.