JWST Detects Water in IRS 3 Envelope 0.6 Light-Years From Sgr A*
Updated
Updated · Popular Science · Aug 11
JWST Detects Water in IRS 3 Envelope 0.6 Light-Years From Sgr A*
3 articles · Updated · Popular Science · Aug 11
Summary
Water molecules were identified inside the vast envelope of IRS 3, a star just 0.6 light-years from the Milky Way’s central black hole, using JWST’s mid-infrared MIRI instrument.
The team says IRS 3 is in a late-life “superwind” phase, shedding roughly one Earth mass every 18 days and driving the growth of an envelope about 10,000 astronomical units wide.
That mass loss helps explain why molecules survived where earlier studies suggested radiation near Sagittarius A* should destroy them, overturning assumptions about the black hole’s immediate environment.
Researchers say the finding points to IRS 3 actively seeding the region around Sgr A* with gas, dust and water—material tied to the chemical building blocks of life.
Next, astronomers plan follow-up observations with the METIS instrument on Chile’s Extremely Large Telescope, due to begin operating in the next few years.