Discovery of water vapour around IRC+10216 as evidence for comets orbiting another star

Gary J. Melnick (), David A. Neufeld, K. E. Saavik Ford, David J. Hollenbach and Matthew L. N. Ashby
Additional contact information
Gary J. Melnick: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
David A. Neufeld: The Johns Hopkins University
K. E. Saavik Ford: The Johns Hopkins University
David J. Hollenbach: NASA/Ames Research Center
Matthew L. N. Ashby: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Nature, 2001, vol. 412, issue 6843, 160-163

Abstract: Abstract Since 1995, planets with masses comparable to that of Jupiter have been discovered around approximately 60 stars1. These planets have not been seen directly, but their presence has been inferred from the small reflex motions that they gravitationally induce on the star they orbit; these motions result in small periodic wavelength shifts in the stellar spectrum. The presence of analogues of the smaller bodies in our Solar System cannot, however, be determined using this technique, because the induced reflex motions are too small—so an alternative approach is needed. Here we report the observation of circumstellar water vapour around the ageing carbon star IRC+10216; water is not expected in measurable quantities around such a star. The only plausible explanation for this water is that the recent evolution of IRC+10216, which has been accompanied by a prodigious increase in its luminosity, is causing the vaporization of a collection of orbiting icy bodies—a process considered in an earlier theoretical study2.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35084024 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:412:y:2001:i:6843:d:10.1038_35084024

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35084024

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().