In a distant corner of our solar system called Kuiper belt, ice cream bodies stalk in the dark, orbiting our sun at fixed distances.
These old minor planets are called Trans-neptunian objects (TNos), and date back to the formation of the Solar system.
Researchers who participate in the discovery of the superficial compositions of the Trans-Neptunian objects program, directed by the University of Florida Central (UCF), recently study the Dim objects of thesis using NASAS James Webb Space Telescope. His work has revealed new information about the surface ice methanol, a key construction block for the organic compounds necessary for life, including sugars, in TNos.
“Methanol has been found, a simple alcohol, in comets And distant tnos, insinuating that it can be a primitive ingredient inherited from the first days of our solar system, or even of interstellar space “,” the former UCF professor, Omíí Pinilla-Alonso, who now works at the University of Spain of Oviedo, Sloeo, Sahoo, Sahoo, Sakeo, Sakeo, Saido, Saido, said. statement.
“But methanol is more than a leftover of the past,” added Pinilla-Alonso. “When exposed to radiation, it is transformed into new compounds, acting as a chemical time capsule that revives how ice themes have evolved around billions of years.”
Webb’s observations identified two groups of TNos: one with Desthace ice methanol and another with subhanol deposits.
“What excited me most was to realize that the thesis differentials were linked to the behavior of methanol, a key ingredient that had the eloic lung leg in the TNos of Earth-based observations,” said Pinilla-Alonso. “Our findings suggest that methanol is destroyed on the surface of the TNos by irradiation, but remains more abundant in the subsoil, protected from this exposure.”
While this discovery may not provide all the responses on the origins and development of TNos, we certainly advances our understanding of these distant ice cream and inspires more research.
The findings were published in March in Astrophysical Magazine Lyrics.
