{"id":29734,"date":"2025-10-16T09:12:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=29734"},"modified":"2025-10-16T10:04:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:19:04","slug":"first-ever-detection-of-heavy-water-in-a-planet-forming-disk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/first-ever-detection-of-heavy-water-in-a-planet-forming-disk\/","title":{"rendered":"First-ever Detection of \u201cHeavy Water\u201d in a Planet-forming Disk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The discovery of ancient water in a planet-forming disk reveals that some of the water found in comets\u2014and maybe even Earth\u2014is older than the disk\u2019s star itself, offering breakthrough insights into the history of water in our Solar System.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This artist\u2019s impression shows the evolution of heavy water molecules (H2O, HDO, and D2O) as they have been observed in giant molecular clouds, a planet forming-disk, and comets\u2014before they eventually may have made their way to Earth. Credit: NSF\/AUI\/NSF NRAO\/P. Vosteen, B. Saxton<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) have made a first-ever detection of doubly deuterated water (D\u2082O, or \u201cheavy water\u201d) in a planet-forming disk around V883 Ori, a young star. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that the water in this disk, and by extension the water in comets that form here, existed long before the birth of the star itself, having journeyed through space from ancient molecular clouds well ahead of the formation of this solar system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur detection indisputably demonstrates that the water seen in this planet-forming disk must be older than the central star and formed at the earliest stages of star and planet formation,\u201d shares Margot Leemker, lead author on this paper, and a postdoc with the Department of Physics, University of Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis presents a major breakthrough in understanding the journey of water through planet formation, and how this water made its way to our Solar System, and possibly Earth, through similar processes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does this mean that the water in your morning cup of coffee could be older than the Sun? The chemical fingerprinting of D\u2082O shows that these water molecules have survived the violent processes of star and planet formation, travelling billions of kilometers through space and time before, ending up in planetary systems like our own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of being destroyed and reformed in the disk, the bulk of this water is inherited from the earliest, coldest stages of star formation, a cosmic hand-me-down that may also be present on Earth today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil now, we weren\u2019t sure if most of the water in comets and planets formed fresh in young disks like V883 Ori, or if it\u2019s \u2018pristine,\u2019 originating from ancient interstellar clouds,\u201d shares John Tobin, a scientist with the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and second author on this new paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The detection of heavy water, using sensitive isotopologue ratios (D\u2082O\/H\u2082O), proves the water\u2019s ancient heritage and provides a missing link between clouds, disks, comets, and ultimately planets. This finding is the first direct evidence of water\u2019s interstellar journey from clouds to the materials that form planetary systems\u2014unchanged and intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water is fundamental to life and habitability. Knowing where planetary water comes from helps us understand the ingredients for life in our Solar System and in others. This discovery suggests that many young planets, and maybe even worlds beyond our own, could inherit water billions of years older than themselves, reminding us how deeply interconnected our existence is with the universe\u2019s ancient past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) have made a first-ever detection of doubly deuterated water (D\u2082O, or \u201cheavy water\u201d) in a planet-forming disk around V883 Ori, a young star. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk.webp",2560,1536,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-200x200.webp",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-675x405.webp",675,405,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-768x461.webp",750,450,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-1100x660.webp",750,450,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-1536x922.webp",1536,922,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-2048x1229.webp",2048,1229,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-1200x800.webp",1200,800,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-870x570.webp",870,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-600x900.webp",600,900,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-600x600.webp",600,600,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-760x490.webp",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-550x360.webp",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-95x65.webp",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-640x853.webp",640,853,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heavy_Water_V883_Ori_Disk-150x90.webp",150,90,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29734"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29742,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29734\/revisions\/29742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}